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DANIEL WEBSTER 




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DANIEL WEBSTER 



BY 



JOHN BACH McMASTER 

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA 



Illustrated 



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NEW YORK 
THE CENTURY CO. 

1902 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

T^o Coots Recsiveo 

^902 

poCi^mHT ENTRY 

CUASS^XXo. No. 
jCO PY 3. J 



Copyright, 1900, 1901, 1902, by 
The Century Co. 



Published October, 1902 












ET-34-o 



THE DEVINNE PRESS. 



TO 
ROBERT BACH McMASTER 









CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I SCHOOL DAYS 3 

II STRUGGLING WITH POVERTY AND LAW .... 24 

m ENTRANCE INTO POLITICS 54 

IV A CONGRESSMAN FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE ... 68 
V A CONGRESSMAN FROM MASSACHUSETTS .... 96 

VI A NEW ENGLAND FEDERALIST 122 

VII THE ENCOUNTER WITH HAYNE 146 

VHI EXPOUNDER OF THE CONSTITUTION 182 

IX THE ENCOUNTER WITH CALHOUN 201 

X A WHIG LEADER 226 

XI THE STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 241 

XII SECRETARY OF STATE -55 

Xin LONGING FOR THE PRESIDENCY 284 

XIV THE SEVENTH OF MARCH 303 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

y 

DANIEL WEBSTER Frontispiece " 

From a daguerreotype. 

Page 

ROOM IN WHICH DANIEL WEBSTER WAS BORN, FRANK- 
LIN, NEW HAMPSHIRE. PRESENT CONDITION 7 '• 

Drawn by B. West Clinedinst. 

ELMS FARM, FRANKLIN, NEW HAMPSHIRE, WEBSTER'S 

HOME AS A CHILD 7 

Drawn by B. West Clinedinst. 

REV. JOSEPH STEVENS BUCKMINSTER 13 

From the painting by Gilbert Stuart in the Boston Athenaeum. 

THE SECOND ACADEMY BUILDLNG (PHILLIPS EXETER 
ACADEMY) AS IT STOOD WHEN ATTENDED BY DANIEL 

WEBSTER IN 1796 19 

Drawn by Harry Fenn. 

DANIEL WEBSTER'S HOUSE IN PORTSMOUTH, NEW 
HAMPSHIRE 19 

Drawn by B. West Clinedinst. 

"WEBSTER'S HOUSE," DARTMOUTH COLLEGE, WHERE 
DANIEL WEBSTER ROOMED WHEN A STUDENT 27 

Drawn by B. West Clinedinst. 

CHRISTOPHER GORE 39 

From the painting by J. Trumbull in the Harvard Memorial Hall, 
Cambridge. 

WEBSTER'S MOTHER 45 

From silhouette in the collection of Mrs. Abbott Lawrence. 

GRACE FLETCHER (MRS. DANIEL WEBSTER) 49 

From the painting by C. Harding in the collection of Mrs. Abbott 
Lawrence. 

DANIEL WEBSTER AS A YOUNG MAN 59 

From the original miniature presented to Miss Grace Fletcher (after- 
ward Mrs. Webster) by Mr. Webster. Lent by Mrs. Ella Lincoln 
Pierce. 

ix 



x LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

rage 

THE CAPITOL, 1814 77. 

Prom a drawing in the Congressional Library. 

WEBSTER'S HOUSE IN SOMERSET STREET, BOSTON 91 

WEBSTER'S CHAIR AND STICK 91 

From a photograph of the original in the possession of Mr. Walton 
Hall. 

IMPRESSION FROM WEBSTER'S SEAL-RING, OWNED BY 
MRS. C. H. JOY 91 

JAMES MADISON 105 

From the portrait by Gilbert Stuart. 

JOHN MARSHALL 105 

From the portrait by Henry Inmau. 

JAMES MONROE 105 

From the portrait by Gilbert Stuart. 

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 127 

From the portrait by Stuart and Sully, in Memorial Hall, Harvard 
University. 

ANDREW JACKSON 127 

JEREMIAH MASON 153 

From the portrait by Gilbert Stuart. 

EDWARD EVERETT 153 

From a daguerreotype. 

JOSEPH STORY 153 

From the portrait by Gilbert Stuart. 

ROBERT Y. HAYNE 175 

Drawn by George T. Tobin, from a print in possession of William H. 
Hayne. 

THOMAS N. BENTON 207 

From a photograph in the collection of Robert Coster. 

JOHN C. CALHOUN 207 

From a lithograph after a daguerreotype. 

HENRY CLAY 207 

From the portrait by Marchant in the diplomatic reception rooms, 
State Department, Washington. 

WEBSTER'S HOUSE IN SUMMER STREET, BOSTON 219 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xi 

Page 
CAROLINE LEROY, MR. WEBSTER'S SECOND WIFE 233 

From a crayon portrait owned by Mrs. Abbott Lawrence. 

JOSEPH STORY, ASSOCIATE JUSTICE OP THE SUPREME 
COURT 257 

ALEXANDER BARING, LORD ASHBURTON 277 

From a portrait by G. P. A. Healy painted in 1843, in commemoration 
of the Webster- Ashburton treaty. In the diplomatic reception rooms 
of the State Department, Washington. 

EXTERIOR AND INTERIOR OF WEBSTER'S LAW OFFICE 

AT MARSHFIELD, MASS 285 

Drawn by B. West Clinedinst. 

RUFUS CHOATE 295 

From a photograph by Josiah J. Hawes, taken between 1855 and 1860. 
The negative was not retouched. 

DANIEL WEBSTER 319 

From the painting by G. P. A. Healy. This portrait was painted in 
1848, as a companion portrait to that of Lord Ashburton, and hangs 
in the diplomatic reception rooms of the State Department. 



DANIEL WEBSTER 



DANIEL WEBSTER 



CHAPTER I 



SCHOOL DAYS 



ONE hundred and fifty years ago, when New 
Hamj^shire was a royal province, when the 
frontier of civilization had not been pushed farther 
up the Merrimac than Concord, when the French 
still held the Mississippi valley, the Great Lakes, 
and the river St. Lawrence, and were about to 
build their forts at the headwaters of the Alle- 
ghany, when events were hurrying on the seven 
years' struggle that was to settle once and for all 
who should rule America, a band of hardy pio- 
neers took up land under patent, and, in the heart 
of the forest, some eighteen miles north of Con- 
cord, laid the foundation of Major Stevens' town. 
The venture was scarcely started when the storm 
of war burst upon the country, and not until the 
victory on the Plains of Abraham gave peace and 
quiet to the frontier did Stevenstown, soon re- 
named Salisbury, begin to thrive. Another band 
of backwoodsmen then made it their home, and 
among these was a young Indian-fighter of four- 

3 



4 DANIEL WEBSTER 

and-twenty, Ebenezer Webster. He came of a race 
of commonwealth-builders who, for a century past, 
had lived and fought on the soil of New Hamp- 
shire, and was himself a splendid type of sturdy 
and vigorous manhood. Born at Kingston, his 
youth was passed in the exciting times of King 
George's War, when the French and Indians were 
harrying the frontier, and when all New England 
rang with joy over the capture of the fortress of 
Louisburg. He was fifteen when the surrender of 
Fort Necessity opened the Seven Years' War in 
serious earnest, and before it ended he saw service 
that was no child's play in a famous corps known 
as Rogers' Rangers. 

The war over, Ebenezer Webster came back to 
the settlements, selected Stevenstown as his future 
home, took up land, and built a log cabin, to which, 
a year later, he brought a wife. The town was 
then on the very edge of the frontier, and as his 
cabin was farther north than any other, not a habi- 
tation save those of the red man lay between him 
and Canada. In this wilderness home five children 
were born before the mother died, after ten years 
of wedded life, and the father brought to it as his 
second wife Abigail Eastman. 

Wringing a livelihood from such a soil in such 
a climate was hard enough at any time, but the task 
was now made more difficult still by the opening 
of the long struggle between the colonies and the 
mother-country, and the constant demand on his 



SCHOOL DAYS 5 

time for services, both civil and military. Now 
we see him, after the fights at Concord and Lex- 
ington, hurrying at the head of his company to 
join the forces around Boston ; now home again to 
serve as delegate to the convention which framed 
the first constitution of New Hampshire. Now we 
see him, a true minuteman, resigning his captaincy 
and hastening to serve under Washington, in an 
hour of dire need at White Plains ; then home again 
to become a member of a committee to prevent 
forestalling and to regulate the prices of commod- 
ities. Now we behold him at the head of seventy 
men pushing through the wilderness for the relief 
of Ticonderoga; now returning when he hears of 
the evacuation of the fort, and reaching home just 
in time to lead back another band that fought gal- 
lantly at Bennington. Once again at home we 
find him at the head of more committees to regu- 
late prices, to enlist the town's quota for the Con- 
tinental army, and finally in command of four com- 
panies raised to aid in the defense of West Point. 
Public services of such various sorts bespeak a 
man with a will not easily bent, with a capacity to 
do equal to any emergency, with a patriotism ris- 
ing above all considerations of self; a man coura- 
geous, resourceful, self-reliant, and commanding 
the entire confidence and respect of his fellows. 

By the time Cornwallis surrendered and the 
fighting ended, three more children had been added 
to the little flock. The log cabin had now become 



6 DANIEL WEBSTER 

too small, and a farm-house was built near by. It 
was the typical New England farm-house of the 
day— one story high, clapboarded, with the chim- 
ney in the center, the door in the middle of the 
south side, four rooms on the ground floor, and a 
lean-to in the rear for a kitchen ; and in this house, 
on January 18, 1782, another son was born, and 
named Daniel. 

When the child was a year and more old the 
parents moved to the banks of the Merrimac, to 
Elms Farm, a place of some local interest, for on 
it, within a cabin whose site was plainly visible in 
Webster's day, had been perpetrated one of the 
many Indian massacres that make up so much of 
frontier history, and near this had stood one of 
the last of the forts built to protect the inhabitants 
of Salisbury and the neighboring towns against the 
savages. 

As the boy grew in years and stature his life 
was powerfully affected by the facts that he was 
the youngest son and ninth child in a family of 
ten; that his health was far from good; that he 
showed tastes and mental traits that stood out in 
marked contrast with those of his brothers and sis- 
ters ; and that he was, from infancy, the pet of the 
family. Such daily work as a farmer's lad was 
then made to do was not for him. Yet he was ex- 
pected to do something, and might have been seen 
barefooted, in frock and trousers, astride of the 
horse that dragged the plow between the rows of 





1. ROOM IN WHICH DANIEL WEBSTER WAS BORN, FRANKLIN, NEW 

HAMPSHIRE. PRESENT CONDITION. 

2. ELMS FARM, FRANKLIN, NEW HAMPSHIRE, WEBSTER'S HOME AS A CHILD. 



SCHOOL DAYS 9 

corn, or raking hay, or binding the wheat the reap- 
ers cut, or following the cows to pasture in the 
morning and home again at night, or tending logs 
in his father's sawmill. When such work was to 
be done it was his custom to take a book along, set 
the log, hoist the gates, and while the saw passed 
slowly through the tree-trunk, an operation which, 
in those days, consumed some twenty minutes, he 
would settle himself comfortably and read. 

He was taught to read, he tells us, by his mother 
and sister at so early an age that he never knew 
the time when he could not peruse the Bible with 
ease. With this humble beginning, his further 
education was intrusted to the village schoolmas- 
ter. The town of Salisbury was then so divided 
for school purposes that the district in which Web- 
ster lived stretched away from the Merrimac River 
to the hills several miles off, and had within it 
three rude log school-houses. One stood near the 
river-bank, another was on the old North Road, 
and the third in the west end of the township. So 
little was there attractive in this backwoods com- 
munity that the wandering schoolmaster seems 
never to have visited it, and his place was filled 
by some humble resident who added to the profits 
of his farm or his store by keeping the district 
schools, teaching spelling, reading, writing, and 
arithmetic for a few weeks each year, and receiv- 
ing in return the pittance of a few dollars. It was 
in the shop kept by one of these teachers that Dan- 



10 DANIEL WEBSTEK 

iel, while still a mere child, first beheld a copy of 
the Federal Constitution, printed with gorgeous 
adornment on a cotton pocket-handkerchief. At- 
tracted probably by the eagle, the flags, and the 
brilliant coloring, he bought the handkerchief, read 
the text, and "from this," says he, "I learned 
either that there was a constitution or that there 
were thirteen States." 

Most parents were then content to send their 
boys and girls to school when it was kept in the 
house nearest their homes. But the father of Dan- 
iel was determined to give his son the best educa- 
tion the land afforded, so he was made to follow 
the master from place to place. When school was 
held in the middle house, but a few miles off, he 
walked to and fro each day; when at the western 
end of the district, Daniel was boarded out in 
some family near by. When no schooling was to 
be had the boy roamed the woods and fields with 
a rough old British sailor who taught him to row 
and to fish, and filled his head with stories of 
bloody fights and strange adventures on land and 
sea. For Jack had served under Admiral Byng 
in the Mediterranean; had deserted from the gar- 
rison at Gibraltar; had wandered through Spain, 
France, and Holland; had been arrested and sent 
back to the army; had fought at Meriden; had 
come over to Boston with Gage; had thrice 
marched up Bunker Hill on the ever-memorable 
day in June ; had deserted to the Continentals ; had 



SCHOOL DAYS 11 

enlisted in a New Hampshire regiment, and, the 
war over, had built a little cabin on one corner of 
the Elms Farm. 

In 1791, when Daniel had just turned nine, a new 
honor which deeply affected his later career came 
to his father. The many evidences of confidence 
and esteem a grateful community had bestowed on 
Ebenezer Webster in the dark days of the Revolu- 
tion did not cease with the war. The leader in 
strife remained a leader in peace, was sent year 
after year first to one and then to the other branch 
of the Assembly, was a delegate to the convention 
which ratified the Federal Constitution, and finally, 
in 1791, was placed on the bench of the Court of 
Common Pleas for the county in which he resided. 
These courts were composed of a presiding judge, 
always an able lawyer, and two side justices, usu- 
ally laymen of hard common sense and sterling in- 
tegrity ; and it was to one of these side justiceships 
that Ebenezer Webster was appointed. The office 
was one of honor and dignity, and carried with it 
an annual salary of several hundred dollars, just 
enough to enable the father to go on with his long- 
meditated plan for the education of Daniel. 

Of his five sons, Ebenezer, David, and Joseph 
had grown to manhood, were settled in life, and 
long past the school age. To educate the two re- 
maining, Ezekiel and Daniel, was beyond his 
means. But if his longing to see at least one son 
rise above the humble calling of a farmer was to 



12 DANIEL WEBSTER 

be gratified, it must be one of these, and to cboose 
which cost the father a bitter struggle. He met 
it with the unfaltering courage which marked the 
man, made his decision, and one day in 1795 an- 
nounced his determination. "On a hot day in 
July," said Webster, describing the scene many 
years later, "it must have been in one of the last 
years of Washington's administration, I was mak- 
ing hay with my father, just where I now see a 
remaining elm-tree. About the middle of the fore- 
noon the Hon. Abiel Foster, M.C., who lived in 
Canterbury, six miles off, called at the house and 
came into the field to see my father. When he was 
gone my father called me to him, and we sat down 
beneath the elm on a haycock. He said : ' My son, 
that is a worthy man ; he is a member of Congress ; 
he goes to Philadelphia and gets six dollars a day, 
while I toil here. It is because he had an educa- 
tion which I never had. If I had had his education 
I should have been in Philadelphia in his place. 
I came near it as it was. But I missed it, and now 
I must work here.' 'My dear father,' said I, 'you 
shall not work; brother and I will work for you, 
and we will wear our hands out, and you shall 
rest.' And I remember to have cried, and I cry 
now at the recollection. 'My child,' said he, 'it is 
of no importance to me. I now live but for my 
children. I could not give your elder brothers the 
advantages of knowledge, but I can do something 
for you. Exert yourself, improve your oppor- 




REV. JOSEPH STEVENS BUCKMINSTER. 



SCHOOL DAYS 15 

tunities, learn, learn, and when I am gone you will 
not need to go through the hardships which I have 
undergone, and which have made me an old man 
before my time. ' ' ' 

Almost a year passed, however, before the plan 
so long cherished was fairly started, and Daniel, 
dressed in a brand-new home-made suit and astride 
a side-saddle, rode with his father to Exeter to 
be entered at the famous academy founded by 
John Phillips. The principal then and forty years 
thereafter was Dr. Benjamin Abbot, one of the 
greatest teachers our country has yet produced. 
As the doctor was ill, the duty of examining the 
new pupil fell to Joseph S. Buckminster, then an 
usher at the academy, but destined to influence 
strongly the religious life of New England. It was 
the custom of the doctor, we are told, to conduct 
the examination of applicants with pompous cere- 
mony, and that, imitating him, young Buckminster 
summoned Webster to his presence, put on his hat, 
and said, "Well, sir, what is your age?" "Four- 
teen," was the reply. "Take this Bible, my lad, 
and read that chapter." The passage given him 
was St. Luke's dramatic description of the conspir- 
ing of Judas with the chief priests and scribes, of 
the Last Supper, of the betrayal by Judas, of the 
three denials of Peter, and of the scene in the house 
of the high priest. But young Webster was equal 
to the test, and read the whole passage to the end 
in a voice and with a fervor such as Master Buck- 



16 DANIEL WEBSTER 

minster had never listened to before. " Young 
man, ' ' said he, ' ' you are qualified to enter this in- 
stitution, ' ' and no more questions were put by him. 
The voice and manner so famous in later life were 
even then strikingly manifest. But one other gift 
of nature still lay dormant— he could not declaim. 
Long after he had become the greatest orator of 
the day he said to a friend: "I could not speak 
before the school. Many a piece did I commit to 
memory and rehearse in my room over and over 
again, but when the day came, and the schoolmas- 
ter called my name, and I saw all eyes turned upon 
my seat, I could not raise myself from it. When 
the occasion was over I went home and wept bitter 
tears of mortification. ' ' 

His stay at the academy was short. At the close 
of the year he was home again, teaching a small 
class of boys and girls at his uncle's house on the 
North Road, and while so engaged he made the 
acquaintance of the Rev. Samuel Wood, minister 
at Boscawen, some six miles from Salisbury. But 
Dr. Wood was more than a minister: he was an 
educator, and in the course of a pastorate covering 
nearly half a century taught in his own house, 
often without remuneration and sometimes at the 
cost of board and lodgings, one hundred and fifty- 
five young men. That so promising a lad as Web- 
ster should be cut short in his school career seemed 
a pity, and arming himself with the testimony of 
Dr. Abbot, he went to Colonel Webster, said what 



SCHOOL DAYS 17 

he thought, urged that the boy be sent to college, 
and offered to fit him. Nothing was closer to the 
father 's heart, and the next few months were spent 
in the house of Dr. Wood. 

The doctor took charge of his Latin; a young 
senior from Dartmouth taught him some Greek; 
and in August, 1797, Webster became a freshman 
in Dartmouth College, more through the influence 
of Trustee Wood than by merit. He had now 
reached a turning-point in his career. Save dur- 
ing the nine months spent at Phillips Exeter, he 
had never been so far from home, had never been 
so completely thrown on his own resources, nor 
brought in close contact with so many young men 
of his own age and generation. He was free to 
make of himself what he pleased, and acted accord- 
ingly, following the path of least resistance. Greek 
and mathematics he disliked and shunned; but he 
read widely in English literature and in history, 
acquired a familiarity with Latin and with Latin 
authors, never forgot anything once acquired, was 
always able to display his knowledge to the best ad- 
vantage, was in no sense a student or a scholar, but 
became the best-informed man in college, and im- 
pressed all who met him as a youth of uncommon 
parts, with promise of being a great man. "So 
much as I read, ' ' says he, ' ' I made my own. When 
a half-hour, or an hour at most, had elapsed, I 
closed my book, and thought over what I had read. 
If there was anything peculiarly interesting or 



18 DANIEL WEBSTER 

striking in the passage, I endeavored to recall it 
and lay it np in my memory, and commonly could 
effect my object. Then if, in debate or conversa- 
tion afterward, any subject came up on which I 
had read something, I could talk very easily so 
far as I had read, and there I was very careful to 

stop. ' ' 

As time passed, this wide reading stood him in 
good stead, and for a year he paid his board by 
aiding in editing a weekly newspaper for which 
he made selections from books and contemporary 
publications, now and then writing a few para- 
graphs himself. Nor were his physical character- 
istics less striking. College mates never forgot his 
deep-set eyes, the solemn tones of his voice, the 
dignity of his carriage, and, above all, his elo- 
quence. The old shyness that tormented him so at 
the academy was gone. At last the greatest of his 
natural gifts was developing rapidly and was used 
freely. At first his audience was the Society of 
the United Fraternity; but his fame spread, and 
when the people of Hanover were casting about 
for an orator to speak to them on the Fourth of 
July, 1800, they turned with one accord to young 
Webster. 

Judged by the side of his later efforts, the ora- 
tion delivered on that day was indeed a weak and 
school-boy production. Yet it is not beneath the 
vast mass of patriotic speeches to w Ich our fore- 
fathers gladly listened, on fast-days and Thanks- 




Hi i 11111 








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THE SECOND ACADEMY BUILDING (PHILLIPS EXETER ACADEMY), AS IT 
STOOD WHEN ATTENDED BY DANIEL WEBSTER IN 1796. 

DANIEL WEBSTER'S HOUSE IN PORTSMOUTH, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



SCHOOL DAYS 21 

giving days, on the 22d of every February and the 
4th of every July, and it richly deserved the honor 
of publication. 

There is plenty of that sort of rhetoric which 
was the fashion of the day, and without which any 
speech, in the opinion of the crowd, would have 
been but a poor affair. Washington was the man 
who "never felt a wound but when it pierced his 
country, who never groaned but when fair freedom 
bled." Napoleon is "the gasconading pilgrim of 
Egypt, who will never dictate terms to sovereign 
America." Great Britain is "haughty Albion." 
Columbia is now seated "in the forum of the na- 
tions, and the empires of the world are amazed at 
the bright effulgence of her glory." The cannon 
of our navy is to "fulminate destruction on 
Frenchmen till the ocean is crimsoned with blood 
and gorged with pirates." But the bombast de- 
tracts in no wise from our interest in the speech. 
On that day, for the first time in his life, Webster 
spoke to a^ popular audience, and to the political 
doctrine then announced he ever remained faith- 
ful. Love of country, devotion to the Union, the 
grandeur of the Constitution, and the blessings of 
a free government administered by the people, 
made his theme. No question of State rights trou- 
bled him. ' ' In the adoption of our present systems 
of jurisprudence," said he, "we see the powers 
necessary for government voluntarily flowing from 
the people, their only origin, and directed to the 



22 DANIEL WEBSTER 

public good, their only proper object. ' ' It was the 
people of these States "who engaged in the trans- 
action which is undoubtedly the greatest approach 
toward human perfection the political world ever 
yet witnessed, and which, perhaps, will forever 
stand in the history of mankind without a par- 
allel." 

This was rank Federalism; but that the lad 
should be a Federalist was inevitable. He had been 
reared at the knee of a man who had fought and 
toiled and spent his substance in the struggle for 
independence, who had followed the leadership of 
Washington in peace with the same unfaltering 
loyalty that he had followed it in war, and had re- 
ceived from his father a political creed of no un- 
certain kind. Since coming to years of discretion 
nothing had occurred to weaken, but much to 
strengthen, the belief so inherited. He had seen 
a foreign power meddling in our domestic affairs, 
had read the letter in which Adet threatened the 
vengeance of France if Mr. Jefferson were not 
elected, and had since beheld that insolent threat 
made good. He had seen our minister to the French 
republic rejected, the X. Y. Z. commissioners in- 
sulted, and the whole country roused to indignation 
and ringing with the cry: "Millions for defense, 
but not a cent for tribute." He had seen a pro- 
visional army raised and Washington put in com- 
mand; he had seen the young men associate for 
defense, and the old men once again mount the 



SCHOOL DAYS 23 

black cockade of the Revolution, as an open de- 
fiance to those who, to their shame, wore the tri- 
color of France ; he had seen seaport after seaport 
arm and equip a vessel of war, and had beheld the 
little navy so created triumph over every foe and 
bring France at last to reason. 

All these things, in his opinion, took place be- 
cause a large part of his countrymen had been deaf 
to the advice of Washington, had quit their own 
to stand on foreign ground, and had formed in 
America a party warmly devoted to France. ' ' But 
why," he asked, " shall every quarrel on the other 
side of the Atlantic interest us in its issue? Why 
shall the rise or depression of every party there 
produce here a corresponding vibration ? Was this 
continent designed as a mere satellite to the other? 
Has not nature here wrought all operations on her 
broadest scale? The natural superiority of Amer- 
ica clearly indicates that it was designed to be in- 
habited by a nobler race of men, possessing a 
superior form of government, superior patriotism, 
superior talents, and superior virtues. Let, then, 
the nations of the East muster their strength in 
destroying each other. Let them aspire to con- 
quest and contend for dominion till their continent 
is deluged in blood. But let none, however elated 
by victoiy, however proud of triumph, ever pre- 
sume to intrude on the neutral position assumed 
by our country." A little later these ideas found 
expression in the Monroe Doctrine. 



CHAPTER II 

STRUGGLING WITH POVERTY AND LAW 

THE year after the Hanover speech Webster 
was graduated from Dartmouth, and went 
back to his father's farm, there to decide the hard- 
est question he had yet encountered ; for he was to 
make up his mind what he would do for a living, 
and how he must set about the doing of it. No 
strong taste, no feeling of special fitness for any- 
thing, guided him in his choice, and with much re- 
luctance and great indifference he finally entered 
the office of Thomas W. Thompson and began the 
study of law, where, six years before, as a bare- 
foot urchin of thirteen, he had served as office-boy 
and told the clients when they called where Mr. 
Thompson was to be found. 

"I have precipitated myself in an office," he 
wrote to his friend Bingham, "with how much 
prudence I do not allow myself to think. I am not, 
like you, harassed with dreams, nor troubled with 
any waverings of inclination ; but am rather sunken 
in indifference and apathy." To another friend 
he wrote: "I fell into a law office, pretty much by 
casualty, after commencement, where I am at pres- 

24 



STRUGGLING WITH POVERTY 25 

ent. Considering how long I must read, prospects 
are not very flattering, but perhaps I may find 
room hereafter, in some wilderness where the vio- 
let has not resigned her tenement, to make writs 
without disturbance of rivals, if there should be 
nobody to purchase. ' ' 

In Mr. Thompson's office Webster thus fairly 
started on his career, read Vattel, Montesquieu, 
and Blackstone, the histories of Robertson and 
Hume, and was deep in the plays of Shakspere and 
the poetry of Milton, Cowper, and Pope, when his 
studies were suddenly cut short by the dire need 
of money. Yielding to his earnest pleadings, his 
father, who indeed "lived but for his children," 
had consented that Ezekiel should have the same 
chance in the world that had been given to him, 
and the lad had entered Dartmouth College. But 
the family treasury was empty. Money must be 
had, and to get it Daniel once more became a 
teacher, accepted the charge of an academy, and 
having purchased a horse and stuffed his saddle- 
bags with clothes and books, rode across country 
to the little town of Fryeburg, Maine. His salary 
was to be three hundred and fifty dollars a year; 
but the county register, with whom he boarded, 
gave him the work of copying deeds sent to be re- 
corded, and so enabled him to earn a trifle more. 
Of a long winter's evening he could copy two 
deeds, for which he was paid fifty cents. "Four 
evenings in a week," says he, "I earned two dol- 



26 DANIEL WEBSTER 

Iars," and one dollar and three quarters u a week 
paid my board. ' ' But it did more : it enabled him 
to save every cent of salary, and at the end of the 
first quarter he rode across the hills to Hanover 
and put all of it into the hands of his brother for 
college expenses. 

After teaching for nine months at Fryeburg, 
Webster went back to the study of law at Salis- 
bury. The academy trustees would gladly have 
retained him, and offered nearly twice the old sal- 
ary, a house, and a plot of ground ; and, what was 
quite as alluring, a clerkship in the Court of Com- 
mon Pleas seemed quite within reach. For a time 
he was sorely tempted. 

"What shall I do?" he wrote. "Shall I say, 
'Yes, gentlemen,' and sit down here to spend my 
days in a kind of comfortable privacy, or shall I 
relinquish these prospects and enter into a pro- 
fession where my feelings will be constantly har- 
rowed by objects either of dishonesty or misfor- 
tune; where my living must be squeezed from 
penury (for rich folks seldom go to law), and my 
moral principle continually be at hazard? I agree 
with you that the law is well calculated to draw 
forth the powers of the mind, but what are its 
effects on the heart; are they equally propitious? 
Does it inspire benevolence and awake tenderness ; 
or does it, by a frequent repetition of wretched ob- 
jects, blunt sensibility and stifle the still, small 
voice of mercy? 




Webster's house,'' Dartmouth college, where daniel 
webster roomed when a student. 



STRUGGLING WITH POVERTY 29 

1 ' The talent with which heaven has intrusted me 
is small, very small, yet I feel responsible for the 
use of it, and am not willing to pervert it to pur- 
poses reproachful or unjust, nor to hide it, like 
the slothful servant, in a napkin. 

"Now I will enumerate the inducements that 
draw me toward the law. First, and principally, 
it is my father's wish. He does not dictate, it is 
time, but how much short of dictation is the mere 
wish of a parent whose labors of life are wasted 
on favors to his children? Even the delicacy with 
which this wish is expressed gives it more effect 
than it would have in the form of a command. Sec- 
ondly, my friends generally wish it. They are 
urgent and pressing. My father even offers me— 
I will sometime tell you what— and Mr. Thompson 
offers my tuition gratis, and to relinquish his stand 
to me. 

' ' On the whole, I imagine I shall make one more 
trial in the ensuing autumn." In the end the fa- 
ther's wish prevailed, and he was soon back again 
in the office of Mr. Thompson, struggling with pov- 
erty, eager for a wider field of action, and longing 
for the day to come when some "miracle," as 
he said, would enable him to finish his studies in 
Boston. 

His poverty at this time was dire. At the close 
of his service in the Fryeburg Academy, when all 
his savings had gone to aid Ezekiel, he writes to a 
friend : ' ' You will naturally inquire how I prosper 



30 DANIEL WEBSTER 

in the articles of cash. Finely ! finely ! I came here 
in January with a horse and watch, etc., and a 
few 'rascally counters' in my pocket. Was soon 
obliged to sell my horse and live on the proceeds. 
Still straitened for cash, I sold my watch, and 
made a shift to get home, where my friends sup- 
plied me with another horse and another watch. 
My horse is sold again, and my watch goes, I ex- 
pect, this week ; thus you see how I lay up cash. ' ' 

After his return to Salisbury he writes to his 
brother : ' ' Now, Zeke, you will not read half a sen- 
tence, no, not one syllable, before you have thor- 
oughly searched this sheet for scrip ; but, my word 
for it, you will find no scrip here. We held a san- 
hedrim this morning on the subject of cash ; could 
not hit upon any way to get you any ; just before 
we went away to hang ourselves through disap- 
pointment, it came into our heads that next week 
might do. . . . 

' ' I have now by me two cents in lawful Federal 
currency; next week I will send them, if they be 
all; they will buy a pipe; with a pipe you can 
smoke ; smoking inspires wisdom ; wisdom is allied 
to fortitude; from fortitude it is but one step to 
stoicism, and stoicism never pants for this world's 
goods; so perhaps my two cents, by this process, 
may put you quite at ease about cash." While 
this letter was on its way to Hanover, Ezekiel, who 
was much in need of a "warm greatcoat," of any 
kind or color of cloth, provided it would "keep 



STRUGGLING WITH POVERTY 31 

the frost out," wrote: "Money, Daniel, money. 
As I was walking down to the office after a letter, 
I happened to find one cent, which is the only 
money I have had since the second day after I 
came on. It is a fact, Dan, that I was called on 
for a dollar where I owed it, and borrowed it, and 
have borrowed it four times since to pay those I 
borrowed of." 

What should be Webster 's life work was now set- 
tled ; but he had still to decide where he could per- 
form it, and a long list of places was passed in 
review. To his friend James Bingham, who wrote 
to ask if it were true that he was to settle in Ver- 
mont, he replied : ' ' My father has an important suit 
at law pending before the Supreme Court of Ver- 
mont. This has frequently called me into that 
realm in the course of the past summer. Mr. Marsh 
of Woodstock is of counsel to us, wherefore I have 
made him several visits in arranging the necessary 
preliminaries to trial. This circumstance, I fancy, 
originated the suggestion that I contemplated read- 
ing in his office. In reality, I have no such idea in 
my head at present. Heretofore I have been in- 
clined to think of Vermont as a place of practice, 
and as preparatory therefor have thought it possi- 
ble that I might read a year in that State; but I 
never carried my views so far as to fix on an office, 
and at this time have no views at all of that kind. 

"Secondly. You have heard that I contem- 
plated finishing my studies in Massachusetts. 



32 DANIEL WEBSTER 

There is more foundation for this than the other. 
It is true I have laid many plans to enable myself 
to be some time in Boston before I go into prac- 
tice, but I did not know that I had mentioned the 
circumstance abroad, because it is all uncertain. 
I believe that some acquaintance in the capital of 
New England would be very useful to us who ex- 
pect to plant ourselves down as country lawyers. 
But I cannot control my fortune; I must follow 
wherever circumstances lead. My going to Bos- 
ton is therefore much more a matter of hope than 
of probability; unless something like a miracle 
puts the means in my hands, I shall not budge from 
here very soon. Depend on it, however, James, 
that I shall sometime avail myself of more advan- 
tages than this smoky village affords. But when 
and where you and I know equally well. If my 
circumstances were like yours, I would by all 
means pass a six months in Boston. The acquain- 
tances you would be like to form there might help 
you to much business in the course of life. You 
can pass that time there just as well as not, and 
I therefore advise to it, as far as I ought to advise 
to anything. But ' some men are born with a silver 
spoon in their mouths, and others with a wooden 
ladle.' " 

A little later, in March of 1804, he confides to 
the same friend the fact that "several gentle- 
men of the profession have mentioned to me 
two or three towns, in Cheshire County, where 



STRUGGLING WITH POVERTY 33 

an industrious young man might probably make 
a moderate living. Washington, Westmoreland, 
and Chesterfield have been named. As to the first, 
if you settle at Lempster, as I suppose you will, 
it will be too near to you ; so let that go. The other 
two I wish you to write to me about as particularly 
as you can. I know I am in great season, as I have 
a year longer to read, but there are some other rea- 
sons which induce me to wish to know generally 
what part of the country I shall inhabit. It is 
more than probable that I shall be leaving this 
place in April or May. If I could think it likely 
that I should hereafter find a resting-place at some 
town in Cheshire, I should be fond of reading in 
that quarter awhile. Now you know, if I could 
have my wish, I should be as fond of being in Mr. 
West's office as anywhere. Silence! Don't whis- 
per a word; don't ever think aloud, but ponder 
these matters a little at the bottom of your heart 
and write me. Inquire if any charitable, clever 
fellow at Charlestown would keep me and get his 
pay when he could. Utter not a word for the soul 
of you, but let me hear from you forthwith." 

His friend having made the inquiry, and having 
answered that "Mr. West leaves the matter with 
me," Webster replied: 

"I am now going, James, to give you a full 
survey of the 'whole ground' as it respects my 
prospects, hopes, and wishes. The great object of 
a lawyer is business ; but this is not, or ought not 



34 DANIEL WEBSTER 

to be, his sole object. Pleasant society, an agree- 
able acquaintance, and a degree of respectability 
not merely as a lawyer, but as a man, are other 
objects of importance. You and I commenced the 
study, you know, with a resolution, which we did 
not say much about, of being honest and conscien- 
tious practitioners. Some part of this resolution 
is, I hope, still hanging about me, and for this rea- 
son I choose to settle in a place where the practice 
of the bar is fair and honorable. The Cheshire 
bar, as far as I have learned, is entitled to a pref- 
erence in these respects over that of any county in 
the State. You know my partiality for Connecti- 
cut River folks generally. Their information and 
habits are far better, in my opinion, than those of 
the people in the eastern part of the State. These 
reasons compel me to say with you, ' it is a goodly 
land, ' and to make it my wish to settle therein. 

"E contra. Many of my friends are desirous 
that I should make an attempt to live in Ports- 
mouth. Mr. Thompson, my good master, knows 
everything about the comparative advantages of 
different places everywhere in New Hampshire, 
except Cheshire County. He has frequently sug- 
gested to me that Portsmouth would be a good 
place for a young man ; and the other evening, when 
I hinted my inclination for Cheshire, he said he 
had a high esteem for the people that way, but 
added that he still wished me to consider Ports- 
mouth. He says there are many gentlemen of char- 



STRUGGLING WITH POVERTY 35 

acter there who would patronize a young lawyer, 
and thinks that even Mr. Attorney- General would 
be fond of the thing. 

' ' Mr. T. will have business on which I shall be at 
Portsmouth as soon as the roads are passable, and, 
out of respect to his opinion, I shall make no cer- 
tain arrangements for my future reading till that 
time. At present I do not feel that Portsmouth is 
the place for me. ' ' 

In this state of uncertainty Daniel turned next 
to his brother, then teaching school in Boston. 
" Agreeably to your injunction," said Ezekiel, "I 
have thought and meditated upon your letter for 
three days and for no inconsiderable portion of 
three nights, and I now give you the results as 
freely as I earnestly wish your welfare. I am di- 
rectly opposed to your going to New York, and for 
several reasons. First, the expensiveness of a jour- 
ney to that city and of a residence in it is, with me, 
a material objection. Secondly, the embarrass- 
ments to which you will be liable without friends 
to assist or patronage to support you. Thirdly, I 
fear the climate would be injurious to your consti- 
tution. I have now told you what I would not 
have you do, and I also tell you what I wish you 
to do. I would have you decamp immediately, 
with all your baggage, from Salisbury, and march 
directly to this place. This is the opinion I have 
maturely formed, for which a thousand reasons 
might be urged. They are too numerous to be 



36 DANIEL WEBSTER 

mentioned, nor is it perhaps necessary, for I say 
to you imperatively, 'Come.' It is the easiest 
thing in the world for a fellow of any enterprise or 
ability to support himself here, very handsomely, 
without descending to any business incompatible 
with the situation of a gentleman. Here, too, is 
the focus of information. Any person, however 
stupid and inefficient, cannot but learn something. 
With a head ever so impenetrable, some ideas will 
penetrate it. I will state to you a single circum- 
stance which, I think, will remove all doubt about 
paying your way. I have now eight scholars in 
Latin and Greek whom I shall be obliged to dis- 
miss if I cannot have an assistant, and I dare not 
at present hire one. The tuition of these eight 
scholars will pay for your board. They re- 
cite twice in a day, and it will take you about 
three fourths of an hour to hear them each time. 
Here, then, you can support yourself by the labor 
of one hour and a half each day. If you will spend 
that time in my school daily, I will board you at 
as genteel a boarding-house as you can wish or the 
place affords. Consult father, the family, and 
your friends, and start for Boston the next day 
after the receipt of this letter. Another such an 
opportunity may never occur. Come, and if you 
don't find everything to your liking, I will carry 
you back to Salisbury with a chaise and six, and 
pay you for your time. I must say again, consult 
father; if he approves, take the patriarchal bless- 
ing and come." 



STRUGGLING WITH POVERTY 37 

This advice Daniel decided to take, and promptly 
replied : ' ' Salisbury, you perceive, as yet heads my 
letters, and how much longer it may I can hardly 
tell. I know it is much better for me to be ab- 
sent, and I am zealously laboring to put myself into 
a new situation. If I recollect, I informed you my 
intention was to depart as soon as it is possible for 
me to get a little cash to enable me to rig out ; for 
when I leave this vale, emphatically a 'vale of 
tears,' I am determined to be under no obliga- 
tions to anybody in the neighborhood except those 
of gratitude and friendship. I never heard what 
particular substance Archimedes wished his de- 
sired fulcrum to be, resting on which he was going 
to move the world; but if his design had been to 
move everything in it, he would have wished it 
cash ; of all things of a perishable nature, it is worth 
the most. It ever did, does now, and ever will con- 
stitute the real, unavoidable aristocracy that exists 
and must exist in society. I had an expectation of 
putting into execution a plan that would have made 
me able to see you immediately. It was well laid, 
and I begged of father to attend to it last week at 
court, but he forgot it." 

The plan was, of course, to borrow money, and, 
having failed, a month and more sped by before 
he was able to write : 

"Day after to-morrow, if the wind blows from 
the right point, I start for East Andover; on this 
tour I expect to be absent about twelve days, and 
soon after my return here I expect to be in Bos- 



38 DANIEL WEBSTER 

ton. The season is now so far advanced, I intend 
to make my calculation so as to be merely season- 
able in town, to learn the arrangements of your 
school and be able to manage it till you go after 
your degree. Now, I want you to be particular. 
Some time ago you mentioned to me a few Latin 
and Greek scholars ; since then you keep glued lips 
on the subject of your school. I desire to know 
whether you can employ me, how many hours per 
day, in what doing, and for what reward? All 
these questions you must certainly answer, and 
have your answers here by the time I return. Tell 
me into whose office I had better go; whether let- 
ters of introduction, and from whom, would be use- 
ful ; in short, tell me everything. ' ' 

The plan thus formed was firmly held to, and 
one day in July, 1804, Webster entered Boston, 
and set off, without friends or even letters of in- 
troduction, to find an office in which to study. The 
youth who had given his school to Ezekiel went 
along, and in the course of their search they pre- 
sented themselves one day to Mr. Christopher 
Gore, told him that Webster was from the country, 
had studied law, had come to Boston to work, not 
to play, was most desirous to be his pupil, and 
asked that a place be kept for him till letters could 
be had from New Hampshire. Impressed by the 
presence and seriousness of the unknown youth, 
Mr. Gore talked with Webster awhile, and when 
he was about to go said: "You look as though 



mmmmmm mmmmwmwm mmMmMmmmmmmA 




CHRISTOPHER GORE. 



STRUGGLING WITH POVERTY 41 

you might be trusted. You say you come to study, 
not to waste time. I will take you at your word. 
You may hang up your hat at once and write at 
your convenience to New Hampshire for your let- 
ters." Describing the scene in a letter, Webster 
declares that when he was introduced by his friend, 
who was as much a stranger as he to Mr. Gore, his 
name was pronounced indistinctly, and that he 
was a week in the office before Mr. Gore knew what 
to call him. "This," he said, "I call setting out 
in the world. But I most devoutly hope that I 
shall never have to set out again." 

The acquaintance thus begun fast ripened into a 
friendship, of which Mr. Gore soon gave a signal 
proof. The clerk of the Court of Common Pleas, of 
which Ebenezer Webster was a side justice, having 
died, the chief justice promptly tendered the office 
to Daniel. The place yielded, in fees, some fifteen 
hundred dollars a year, a sum sufficient to enable 
him to raise the load of family debt, make his fa- 
ther's last days comfortable, be independent, help 
Ezekiel, and in time lift the mortgage on the farm. 
Overjoyed at such good fortune, he hurried with 
the news to Mr. Gore, who astonished him with 
the remark, "You don't mean to accept it, surely." 
"I told him," says Webster, "as soon as I could 
speak, that I had no thought of anything else. 
'Well,' said he, 'you must decide for yourself; but 
come, sit down, and let us talk it over. The office 
is worth fifteen hundred dollars a year, you say. 



42 DANIEL WEBSTER 

Well, it will never be worth any more. Ten to 
one, if they find out it is so much, the fees will be 
reduced. You are appointed now by friends; 
others may fill their places who are of different 
opinions, and who have friends of their own to 
provide for. You will lose your place ; or, suppos- 
ing you do retain it, what are you but a clerk for 
life? Go on, and finish your studies ; you are poor 
enough, but there are greater evils than poverty. 
Live on no man's favor. What bread you eat, let 
it be the bread of independence. ' ' ' 

Webster had now reached another turning-point 
in his career. The temptation to accept the clerk- 
ship was great. "Here," said he, "was present 
comfort, competency, and, I may even say, riches, 
as I then viewed things, all ready to be enjoyed, 
and I was called upon to reject them for the un- 
certain and distant prospect of professional suc- 
cess." But the advice of Mr. Gore was sound, and 
was taken, to the bitter regret of the father, whose 
heart was set on seeing his son clerk of the court. 
He had long had the office in view for Daniel; to 
disappoint him was hard, but it had to be done, 
and Webster with a heavy heart went home to do 
it. "I got home," he said, when describing the 
scene in after years, "one afternoon, just after sun- 
set, and saw my father in his little room, sitting 
in his arm-chair. He was pretty old then. His 
face was pale and his cheeks sunken, and his eyes, 
which were always very large and black, seemed 



STRUGGLING WITH POVERTY 43 

larger and blacker than I ever saw them. He 
seemed glad to see me, and almost as soon as I sat 
down he said : ' Well, Daniel, we have got that office 
for you.' 'Yes, father,' said I. 'The gentlemen 
were very kind. I must go and thank them.' 
'They gave it to you without my saying a word 
about it.' 'I must go and see Judge Farrar, and 
tell him I am much obliged to him.' And so I 
talked about it very carelessly, and tried to make 
my father understand me. At last he began to 
have some suspicion of what I meant, and he 
straightened himself up in his chair, and looked 
at me as though he would look me through. ' Dan- 
iel, Daniel,' said he, 'don't you mean to take that 
office ? ' ' No, indeed, father, ' said I ; ' I hope I can 
do better than that. I mean to use my tongue in 
the courts, not my pen ; to be an orator, not a regis- 
ter of other men's acts.' For a moment I thought 
he was angry. He looked at me for as much as 
a minute, and then said very slowly: 'Well, my 
son, your mother has always said you would come 
to something or nothing, she was not sure which. 
I think you are now about settling that doubt for 
her.' " 

Having thus announced his purpose to be a 
lawyer, not a clerk, Webster went back to the office 
of Mr. Gore, was admitted to practice in the Court 
of Common Pleas in Boston in March, 1805, and 
opened an office in the little town of Boscawen, hard 
by Elms Farm, that he might be near his father. 



44 DANIEL WEBSTER 

' ' You must know, ' ' he wrote to his friend Bing- 
ham, "that I have opened a shop in this village 
for the manufacture of justice writs. Other me- 
chanics do pretty well here, and I am determined 
to try my luck among others. March 25 I left Bos- 
ton, with a good deal of regret, I assure you. I 
was then bound for Portsmouth; but I found my 
father extremely ill and little fit to be left by all 
his sons, and therefore, partly through duty, partly 
through necessity, and partly through choice, I 
concluded to make my stand here. ' ' 

Another letter tells of his success. "It is now 
eight months since I opened an office in this town, 
during which time I have led a life which I know 
not how to describe better than by calling it a 
life of writs and summonses. Not that I have 
dealt greatly in those articles, but that I have 
done little else. My business has been just about 
so so; its quantity less objectionable than its qual- 
ity. I shall be able at the end of the year to pay 
my bills and pay perhaps sixty pounds for my 
books. I practise in Hillsborough, Rockingham, 
and Grafton. . . . Last year I wrote a pam- 
phlet in two days, which 1 have the pleasure of 
seeing kicked about under many tables. But you 
are one of the very few who know the author of 
the 'Appeal to the Old Whigs.' " 

At Boscawen Webster lived for two years and 
more, found plenty of time to read and study, 
added still more to his reputation as a public 



STRUGGLING WITH POVERTY 47 

speaker, and wrote a couple of essays for the 
"Monthly Anthology," a Boston magazine from 
which the present "North American Review" is 
descended. 

Concerning his work as a lawyer, innumerable 
traditions have come down to us. One presents 
him as arguing his first case before the court of 
which his father was a judge. Another pictures 
him as pleading a cause so ably before the chief 
justice that his Honor remarked, on leaving the 
court-house, that he had "never before met such 
a young man as that." A third recalls a famous 
murder trial in the course of which Webster aston- 
ished all present by his deep insight into the work- 
ings of the human mind, and depicted the infirmi- 
ties of human nature with such eloquence that the 
jury and the bystanders were moved to tears. 
These tales were told long after Mr. Webster had 
become famous, and are to be treated accordingly. 
That he was a good lawyer with a steadily grow- 
ing practice, was an effective public speaker, and 
had won no little local fame before removing to 
Portsmouth, is all that is certain. 

This removal took place in 1807. His father 
was then dead, and feeling no longer bound to 
waste his energies on the petty business of a coun- 
try attorney, Daniel made over his office to Ezekiel, 
and during nine years was a citizen in the great 
seaport and chief town of New Hampshire. While 
living in Portsmouth he married Miss Grace 



48 DANIEL WEBSTER 

Fletcher, who became the mother of his five chil- 
dren : a daughter, Grace, who died while a girl ; a 
-son, Daniel Fletcher; a daughter, Julia; a son, Ed- 
ward, who died of disease in the Mexican War; 
and a son, Charles, who died while an infant. 

From a business standpoint the change was most 
fortunate. The cases that came to him were far 
more important than any in Boscawen. They 
brought him in contact with the great lawyers of 
the State, called forth his best efforts, and made 
him more widely known. At Boscawen and Salis- 
bury he was by far the most eloquent speaker, the 
ablest lawyer, the brightest young man in the com- 
munity, and had very naturally formed an esti- 
mate of himself which neither his years nor his 
experience justified. But at Portsmouth he soon 
found himself contending with lawyers who could 
and did teach him much that he had the good sense 
to learn. 

A story is told of an early encounter with Wil- 
liam Plumer, then a senator from New Hampshire, 
and one of the best lawyers in the State, which 
well illustrates Webster's youthful manner. In the 
course of an argument, Mr. Plumer cited a few 
lines from a book called "Peake's Law of Evi- 
dence, ' ' whereupon Webster scoffed at the passage 
as bad law, ridiculed the book as a wretched com- 
pilation, and, throwing it down upon the table, ex- 
claimed: "So much for Mr. Thomas Peake's com- 
pendium of the Law of Evidence." But Mr. 




GRACE FLETCHER (MRS. DANIEL WEBSTER) 



STRUGGLING WITH POVERTY 51 

Plumer, not at all abashed, quietly produced a vol- 
ume of reports, read from it the despised pas- 
sage, and informed the court that it was taken 
word for word from one of Lord Mansfield's de- 
cisions. 

The man who at this time influenced Webster 
most powerfully was Jeremiah Mason, one of the 
greatest masters of common law our country has 
produced. "If anybody," said he, "should think 
I was somewhat familiar with the law on some 
points, and should be curious enough to desire to 
know how it happened, tell him that Jeremiah 
Mason compelled me to study it. He was my mas- 
ter." No man then practising at the New Hamp- 
shire bar was such a "cause-getter," and this suc- 
cess, as Webster was shrewd enough to see, was 
due quite as much to a plain and simple manner 
of speech as to knowledge of the law. Everything 
which made up what then passed for oratory was 
wanting. No figures of speech, no sounding sen- 
tences, no bursts of eloquence, no gestures, marred 
Mason's argument. In the language of the plain 
people, the language of the market-place and the 
farm, he said what he had to say and stopped. 
"He had a habit," said Webster, "of standing 
quite near the jury,— so near that he might have 
laid his finger on the foreman's nose,— and then he 
talked in a plain conversational way, in short sen- 
tences, and using no word that was not level to 
the comprehension of the least educated man. This 



52 DANIEL WEBSTER 

led ine to examine my own style, and I set about 
reforming it altogether." 

Mr. Mason in turn has left us a description of 
his first encounter with Webster : ' ' It was the first 
case in which he appeared at our bar; a criminal 
prosecution, in which I had arranged a very pretty 
defense, as against the attorney-general, Atkinson, 
who was able enough in his way, but whom I knew 
very well how to take. Atkinson being absent, 
Webster conducted the case for him, and turned in 
the most masterly manner the line of my defenses, 
carrying with him all but one of the jurors, so that 
I barely saved my client by my best exertions." 
But he saved his client, and in so doing taught 
Webster a lesson he was not slow to learn. Trained 
by such experiences, his progress from a country 
lawyer to a leader of the bar was rapid. The rough 
and overbearing manner gave place to a stately 
and dignified courtesy. The declamation that did 
so well on the Fourth of July was replaced by a 
style unsurpassed in modern oratory for simpli- 
city and earnestness. The law was studied as he 
had never studied it before ; a power was acquired 
of going through a mass of confusing arguments 
to the very heart of a question and dragging forth 
the vital points ; and a manner of close and logical 
reasoning was cultivated to perfection. A few 
years of such application sufficed to make him a 
great lawyer in the community. He was retained 
in the leading cases, followed the Supreme Court 



STRUGGLING WITH POVERTY 53 

on its circuit, was rarely— not ten times, he says— 
a junior counsel, and made, one year with another, 
as much as two thousand dollars annually— a large 
sum for so poor a State as New Hampshire during 
the first decade of the century. 



CHAPTER III 

ENTRANCE INTO POLITICS 

WEBSTER had now reached his first goal. 
Success, a good income, and some leisure 
were his, and having achieved this, he began to be 
drawn irresistibly toward politics. The profession 
of the law was chosen, he tells us, because his father 
wished it, because good friends advised it, and be- 
cause the opportunity to make a fair start was then 
at hand. No fondness for the profession, no belief 
that he was specially fitted for the work, prompted 
him in the choice of a career. 

To fish and shoot, "to contemplate nature, and 
to hold communion, unbroken by the presence of 
human beings, with this universal frame, thus won- 
drous fair, ' ' to read the masterpieces of Latin and 
English literature, to study history and govern- 
ment, and now and then write a paper for the 
"Monthly Anthology" or deliver an oration on 
some historic day, were far more to his liking than 
cross-examining witnesses and pleading before 
juries. 

Notwithstanding this early dislike for law, Web- 
ster was long in entering on that career in which 

54 



ENTRANCE INTO POLITICS 55 

his name and fame were made, and passed his 
thirtieth birthday without holding a political office 
of any kind. He had not, however, been unmind- 
ful of what was going on about him, and had often 
been called on for a Fourth-of-July oration. In 
1802 he spoke at Fryeburg, in 1805 at Salisbury, 
and in 1806 before the " Federal Gentlemen of 
Concord." 

The Fryeburg address was not printed, but long 
after Webster was dead a bundle of papers found 
its way to an old junk-shop in Boston. The pro- 
prietor of the shop, while rummaging among the 
manuscripts, saw the name of Webster, and making 
a more careful examination, came upon the original 
of the Fryeburg speech, which has since been pub- 
lished. His theme was again the Constitution and 
the Union, the dangers that beset them, and the 
duty of guarding them. He reminded his audience 
that their government was free, was practical, and 
of their own choice. No consul dictated it; no 
philosophers taught its principles; it was not 
brought to them, as were those of Switzerland and 
Holland, by the bayonets of the magnanimous sis- 
ter republic across the Atlantic. If they wished 
to preserve it they must love it, shun changes both 
great and small, and keep up a high tone of public 
morals. "When," said he, "the public mind be- 
comes depraved, every attempt to preserve it is 
in vain. Laws are then nullities, and constitutions 
waste paper." 



56 DANIEL WEBSTER 

At Concord, as at Fryeburg, his subject was still 
the preservation of the Union and the spirit rather 
than the letter of the Constitution. Indeed, whole 
passages were taken from the Fryeburg oration, 
of which it was little more than a revision to suit 
the great political changes four years had wrought. 

"When we speak of preserving the Constitu- 
tion," said he, "we mean not the paper on which 
it is written, but the spirit which dwells in it. Gov- 
ernment may lose all its real character, its genius, 
its temper, without losing its appearance. Repub- 
licanism, unless you guard it, will creep out of its 
case of parchment, like a snake out of its skin. 
You may have a despotism under the name of a 
republic. You may look on a government and see 
it possess all the external modes of freedom, and 
yet find nothing of the essence, the vitality, of free- 
dom in it, just as you may contemplate an em- 
balmed body, where art hath preserved proportion 
and form, amid nerves without motion, and veins 
void of blood." 

It was the liberty for which the fathers fought 
at Lexington and Bunker Hill, the republic as they 
founded it, the Constitution as by them interpreted, 
that he believed were injured by the policy of 
Jefferson. 

Holding these views, he went to Portsmouth, 
and found himself in a ship-building, ship-owning, 
seafaring community, whose very life depended on 
commerce and trade, now threatened with ruin by 



ENTRANCE INTO POLITICS 57 

the edicts of Great Britain and France. The Lords 
Commissioners of Appeal in London had declared 
the broken voyage a fraud on the neutral flag, had 
placed more than half the commerce of America 
under ban, and had thrown the whole commercial 
world into confusion. British cruisers patrolled 
our coast, blockaded our ports, searched our mer- 
chantmen, impressed our seamen, attacked the 
Chesapeake on the high sea, and bore away three 
sailors from her deck. By an order in council, 
Great Britain shut to neutral trade every port of 
Europe from Brest to the mouth of the Elbe. Na- 
poleon, by his Berlin decree, laid a blockade on the 
coast of the British Isles, commanded British prop- 
erty to be seized wherever found, and forbade a 
neutral ship that had broken the voyage by so 
much as touching at a British port to enter any 
port or colony of France. Great Britain retaliated 
and prohibited neutral trade between two ports 
both of which were in the possession of France or 
her allies, made the ship and cargo lawful prize 
when captured, and finding this of no avail, fol- 
lowed it with a third order more ruinous still. All 
the ports of France, of her allies, of their colonies, 
of any country at war with Great Britain, all the 
ports of Europe from which for any reason the 
British flag was barred, were shut to neutral trade 
save under British license. It was now the turn 
of Napoleon to strike again, and he did so with 
his Milan decree, which denationalized every ship 



58 DANIEL WEBSTER 

whose captain touched at a British port, bought a 
British license, or submitted to search by a British 
officer, and made the craft the lawful prize of the 
captor, whether taken in a port of France or in 
that of one of her allies, or seized on the ocean by 
a man-of-war or privateer. 

That our countrymen in such an emergency 
should have hesitated for one moment what to do, 
that they should have been divided in opinion, that 
one great party should have defended the course of 
Napoleon, while another with equal vehemence jus- 
tified the conduct of King George, is hardly credi- 
ble. But so it was, and the measures that resulted 
were worthy of men who carried their political 
differences beyond low water. Fight for the rights 
of neutrals and the freedom of the sea they would 
not ; strike back so vigorously as to wound France 
and Great Britain they could not; but to submit 
with meekness they were ashamed. At least a show 
of resistance must be made, and in the vain hope 
of punishing the powers and avoiding the conse- 
quences of the decree and the orders in council, the 
sea was abandoned, the embargo was laid, and our 
countrymen adopted, in the language of the time, 
a terrapin policy and withdrew into their shell. 

Of all the acts six-and-fifty Congresses have 
placed on the statute-books, the most harmful were 
the embargo law of 1807 and its many supplements. 
The first shut our ports for an unlimited time and 
stopped our foreign trade. The second exacted 




DANIEL WEBSTER AS A YOUNG MAN. 



ENTRANCE INTO POLITICS 61 

heavy bonds from those engaged in the coasting- 
trade. The third spread the embargo over every 
harbor, lake, bay, sound, and river; exacted bonds 
from the owners of market-boats and oyster-boats, 
from the broadhorns that went down the Missis- 
sippi, and the craft that pleasure-parties used for 
a day's fishing; forbade export by land, and sub- 
jected eveiy cart, wagon, wheeled vehicle, and 
sleigh so engaged to forfeiture, and their owners 
to enormous fines. The fourth prescribed that no 
coaster should have a clearance unless the loading 
was done in the presence of a revenue officer, nor 
sail for a port of the United States near a foreign 
possession without permission of the President, 
nor go anywhere if a collector thought fit to refuse 
consent. The fifth and worst of all was the Force 
Act. A restriction on commerce, originally in- 
tended to distress Great Britain and France, had 
now become perverted into an instrument for the 
destruction of the domestic trade and commerce of 
the United States, and was fast doing its work. 
All New England rose in resistance. Never within 
the memory of men then living had the people been 
more aroused. As a measure of coercion the em- 
bargo was declared to be a failure; as a commer- 
cial restriction it was held to be unnecessaiy and 
ruinous ; as a law, the act to enforce it was claimed 
to be oppressive, tyrannical, and unconstitutional, 
and its repeal was demanded. 
As Webster beheld the idle seamen, the disman- 



62 DANIEL WEBSTEK 

tied ships, the grass growing on the wharves, the 
closed warehouses, and the ruined merchants, he 
too began to share the just indignation of the com- 
munity, and, taking up his pen, wrote a Feder- 
alist pamphlet entitled "Considerations on the Em- 
bargo." No name was attached, and it was soon 
lost to sight in the mass of petitions, memorials, 
addresses, and resolutions that poured forth from a 
score of towns and legislatures. The repeal of the 
embargo laws and the press of professional work 
now turned him for a time from politics; but his 
interest had been aroused, hostility to the policy of 
the administration had been awakened, and when 
at last the war opened, he at once took the place 
of opposition leader and began his political career 
in earnest. 

The Washington Benevolent Society of Ports- 
mouth had invited him to deliver an oration on the 
Fourth of July, 1812. Before the day came Con- 
gress had declared that a state of war existed with 
Great Britain, and all New England was again 
aflame with resistance. As the news passed from 
one seaport to another, bells were tolled, shops 
were shut, business was suspended, and the flags 
on the embargoed shipping were raised to half- 
mast. The sea-power of Great Britain, the weak- 
ness of the United States, the needlessness of the 
war, the prospect of an alliance with Napoleon, 
the wisdom of the advice of Washington, the hos- 
tility of the Republicans to New England and the 



ENTRANCE INTO POLITICS G3 

navy, the folly of intrusting the defense of the 
coast to a fleet of Jefferson gunboats, and the duty 
of carrying resistance to the verge of rebellion, 
were the issues of the hour, and were made topics 
of the speech. Hitherto the orations of Webster 
on Independence Day, good as they were, contained 
little more than the sentiments and historical allu- 
sions suitable to that anniversary. Now the crisis 
furnished a theme deeply interesting to his audi- 
ence and to himself, and, rising to the occasion, he 
delivered a speech which was heard with delight, 
was printed, went quickly through two editions in 
pamphlet form, and greatly added to his local repu- 
tation. Two passages in particular were read with 
hearty approval— that in which he condemned the 
foreign policy of Jefferson, and that in which he 
marked out the proper course of opposition. 

Opposition of Webster's sort was, however, too 
calm and reasonable to be acceptable to everybody. 
The belief was wide-spread that the administration 
was bent on the destruction of commerce, that it 
longed for nothing so much as the ruin of New 
England, that its measures were animated by a 
fierce, implacable hatred of old England. Feeling 
ran high, party spirit was bitter, and in a little 
while notices appeared in the public journals call- 
ing on all who loved the memory of Washington 
to attend a convention at Brentwood to consider 
the state of the Union. Brentwood was a small 
town in Rockingham County, some twenty miles 



64 DANIEL WEBSTER 

from Portsmouth, and thither Webster went. 
Never before had such a gathering been known. 
Men came by scores in carriages and on horseback, 
till five hundred vehicles of all sorts, twice as 
many horses, and two thousand men were gathered 
in and about the town. To assemble in the meet- 
ing-house was impossible, so a rough stage was 
hastily put up out of doors, a moderator was 
chosen, and stirring speeches were made by sev- 
eral men well known as popular orators. What 
Webster said on this occasion has not been pre- 
served, but one who was present declares that he 
surpassed himself, that he surprised those who 
knew his power and expected much, and that he 
held the great throng spellbound for more than 
ninety minutes. When the speaking was finished 
a committee of seventeen, of which Webster was 
one, was instructed to frame resolutions and write 
a report expressive of the sense of the meeting, 
while a recess of two hours was taken. 

To draft so important a document in so short a 
time would have been a physical impossibility. 
But long before the day of meeting Webster had 
been selected to prepare the report, and had 
brought with him a most carefully written paper. 
As he was far more used to making arguments and 
delivering orations than to writing addresses, he 
seems to have fancied himself the spokesman of 
the convention, and put his report in the form of 
an oration addressed to President Madison. He 



ENTRANCE INTO POLITICS 65 

reviewed the course of events leading up to the 
war, explained and justified the opposition of the 
Federalists of New England, urged a vigorous 
naval defense, and warned the President of the dan- 
gers of an alliance with Napoleon, and of the break- 
ing up of the Union which might follow a steady 
adherence to the present policy. He said: 

"We are, sir, from principle and habit, attached 
to the Union of the States. But our attachment is 
to the substance, and not to the form. It is to the 
good which this Union is capable of providing, and 
not to the evil which is suffered unnaturally to 
grow out of it. If the time should ever arrive when 
this Union shall be holden together by nothing but 
the authority of the law; when its incorporating, 
vital principle shall become extinct ; when its prin- 
cipal exercises shall consist in acts of power and 
authority, not of protection and beneficence ; when 
it shall lose the strong bond which it hath hitherto 
had in the public affections; and when, conse- 
quently, we shall be one, not in interest and mu- 
tual regard, but in name and form only— we, sir, 
shall look on that hour as the closing scene of our 
country's prosperity. 

"We shrink from the separation of these States 
as an event fraught with incalculable evils, and it 
is among our strongest objections to the present 
course of measures that they have, in our opinion, 
a very dangerous and alarming bearing on such 
an event. If a separation of the States ever should 



C6 DANIEL WEBSTER 

take place, it will be on some occasion when one 
portion of the country undertakes to control, to 
regulate, and to sacrifice the interests of another, 
when a small and heated majority in the govern- 
ment, taking counsel of their passions and not of 
their reason, contemptuously disregarding the in- 
terests and perhaps stopping the mouths of a large 
and respectable minority, shall, by hasty, rash, 
and ruinous measures, threaten to destroy essential 
rights and lay waste the most important interests. 

"It shall be our most fervent supplication to 
Heaven to avert both the event and the occasion, 
and the government may be assured that the tie 
which binds us to the Union will never be broken 
by us." 

The resolutions and the address to the President 
having been adopted, the convention proceeded to 
nominate men to represent New Hampshire in the 
Thirteenth Congress. The custom of dividing the 
State into as many districts as it had members of 
the House of Representatives, and assigning to the 
voters in each the duty of electing one, had not 
then come into use. Each party named six candi- 
dates, and the general ticket so framed was voted 
for all over the State. Among the six names on 
the Federalist ticket now prepared at Brentwood 
was that of Webster, and when the election came 
off it stood at the head of the poll. He received 
two more votes than any other Federalist and 
twenty-five hundred more than any of the six Re- 



ENTBANCE INTO POLITICS 67 

publicans. He was now a member of Congress. 
He had readied the goal for which his father 
longed, and as he heard the result of the hotly con- 
tested canvass, Ins thoughts must have gone back 
to that day in the hay-field when the stern old sol- 
dier told him of a disappointed ambition and im- 
plored him to "learn, leam," that he might not 
be doomed to that life of toil which had made his 
father old before his time. 



CHAPTER IV 

A CONGRESSMAN FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE 

WHEN Webster reached Washington in the 
month of May, 1813, and took his seat in 
the House of Representatives, his career as a poli- 
tician began. Never before had he filled any politi- 
cal office, elective or appointive. He came with no 
reputation earned by service of a public sort. Not 
a member of the House, in all likelihood, had ever 
read one of his Fourth-of-July orations, or had 
ever heard him argue a case, or, unless from New 
England, had ever heard his name. Yet the strik- 
ing presence of the man attracted notice, and when 
Speaker Clay was forming the committees, he chose 
Webster to be the one representative of the Feder- 
alists on the Committee on Foreign Relations. At 
the head of that committee was Calhoun. The en- 
trance of Webster into Congress, therefore, com- 
pleted the great triumvirate of American politics, 
and the three men whose names thenceforth for 
forty years are never absent from our annals met 
for the first time. 

As one of the minority party, Webster's duties 
for a while lay easy upon him. He was responsible 

68 



CONGRESSMAN 69 

for nothing but reasonable opposition, and while 
waiting for something to oppose, spent his days 
mingling with the strange society of the capital. 
"I went yesterday to make my bow to the Presi- 
dent. I do not like his looks any better than I like 
his administration. I think I could find clearly in 
his features embargo, non-intercourse, and war. 
Dawson and Findlay are the makers of all motions. 
Findlay makes his from the journal of the last 
session, which he holds in his hands and reads. 
Dawson is as inspired an animal as one could wish 
to see." 

Nothing seemed to Webster more noticeable than 
the absence of women ; for few congressmen could 
then afford to bring their families to Washington 
and there maintain them on six dollars a day. "A 
few ladies," says he, "are to be seen by going to 
the weekly rout at the palace; but they are there 
only as so many curiosities, rarae aves, fit for all 
the purposes of social life save only the unimpor- 
tant particulars of speaking and being spoken to. 
I understand that in the winter session, when there 
are more ladies in the city, the aforesaid evil is in 
some degree mitigated. I have been to the levee, or 
drawing-room, but once. It is a mere matter of 
form. You make your bow to Mrs. Madison, and 
to Mr. Madison if he comes in your way; but he, 
being there merely as a guest, is not officially en- 
titled to your conge. M. Serurier, Mme. Bona- 
parte, the Russian minister, heads of departments 



70 DANIEL WEBSTER 

and tails of departments, members of Congress, 
etc., etc., here and there interspersed with military 
and naval hat and coat, make up the group. You 
stay from five minutes to an hour, as you please, 
eat and drink what you can catch without danger 
of surfeit, and if you can luckily find your hat and 
stick, then take French leave ; and that 's going to 
the 'levee.' " 

But it was not in search of social pleasure that 
Webster went to Washington. The Congress had 
been called in extra session to find a way to help 
the government out of the straits into which a 
long series of military and financial disasters had 
brought it. Those splendid sea victories which 
make the years 1812 and 1813 glorious in our his- 
tory were still of constant occurrence. But the war 
on land had failed miserably. The conquest of 
Canada, so boldly predicted, had not been achieved. 
Hull had surrendered one army at Detroit. An- 
other still lingered on the banks of the Niagara. 
A third, sent to attack Montreal, was in winter 
quarters in New York. 

The loan on which the administration depended 
for means with which to carry on the war, after 
being twice rejected by the people, had been sold 
to a syndicate at a heavy discount. The coast from 
Point Judith to the Mississippi River was closely 
blockaded, and New England was in a state of 
angry resistance which bordered on rebellion. 

As a member of a New England delegation, it 



CONGRESSMAN 71 

was now the duty of Webster to carry opposition 
to the war and the administration from the town- 
meeting to the floor of the House of Representa- 
tives. In just what that opposition should consist, 
had been stated by him in a speech before the 
Washington Benevolent Society at Portsmouth on 
the Fourth of July, 1812 : 

"Resistance and insurrection form no part of 
our creed. The disciples of Washington are nei- 
ther tyrants in power nor rebels out. If we are 
taxed to carry on this war, we shall disregard cer- 
tain distinguished examples, and shall pay. If our 
personal services are required, we shall yield them 
to the precise extent of our constitutional liability. 
At the same time the world may be assured that 
we know our rights and shall exercise them. We 
shall express our opinions on this, as on every 
measure of government, I trust, without passion; 
I am certain, without fear. 

"We believe, then, that this war is not the re- 
sult of impartial policy. If there be cause of war 
against England, there is still more abundant cause 
of war against France. The war is professedly 
undertaken principally on account of the continu- 
ance of the British orders in council. It is well 
known that those orders, odious as they are, did 
not begin the unjust and vexatious system prac- 
tised upon neutrals, nor would that system end with 
those orders if we should obtain the object of the 
war by procuring their repeal. The decrees of 



72 DANIEL WEBSTER 

France are earlier in point of time, more extrava- 
gant in their pretensions, and tenfold more inju- 
rious in their consequences. They are aggravated 
by a j3retended abrogation, and, holding our under- 
standings in no higher estimation than our rights, 
that nation requires us to believe in the repeal of 
edicts the daily operation of which is manifest and 
visible before our eyes." 

Having thus declared himself in favor of a bold 
criticism of the conduct of the administration, and 
having been elected by the votes of men bitterly 
opposed to the war as unnecessary, partial, and 
unjust, it would never do to go back to Portsmouth 
without at least one blow against "Mr. Madison's 
war." That he should strike such a blow was all 
the more necessary because the opposition in the 
House was unorganized and unled. There was no 
well-defined plan of action; no "steering commit- 
tee" to see that a plan, if formed, was carried out; 
no one man on the floor who stood in the same 
relation to the Federalists that Calhoun did to the 
Republicans. In this state of affairs Webster chose 
to act for himself, and before he had been three 
weeks in the House, he offered a set of resolutions 
which brought him at once into public notice. 

The long embargo, having failed to compel either 
power to remove its restrictions on neutral com- 
merce, had been replaced, in March, 1809, by the 
non-intercourse act, which had been enforced as 
to France and suspended as to Great Britain by 



CONGRESSMAN 73 

agreement with her minister. But the act of the 
minister had been promptly disavowed by Great 
Britain, and non-intercourse restored, while Napo- 
leon struck back with the secret decree of Vienna, 
which never was published, but sequestered every 
ship that came to any port within Napoleon's 
power. 

The non-intercourse act of 1809, having failed, 
as did the embargo, to produce the wished-f or effect 
on France and Great Britain, was repealed in 1810 
and replaced by Macon bill No. 2, which restored 
commercial relations with all the world, but bade 
the President, ''in case either Great Britain or 
France shall, before the 3d day of March next 
[1811], so revoke or modify her edicts as that they 
shall cease to violate the neutral commerce of the 
United States, ' ' to forbid intercourse with the na- 
tion which had not revoked its edicts. Quick to 
see the advantage afforded, Napoleon declared, 
through his minister Cadore (August 5, 1810), that 
the decrees of Berlin and Milan were repealed, 
and would cease to have effect after November 1, 
provided Great Britain revoked her orders in coun- 
cil or the United States should "cause their rights 
to be respected by the English." Accepting this 
statement as proof of repeal, Madison, on No- 
vember 2, issued a proclamation announcing the 
fact, and the Secretary of the Treasury informed 
the collectors of customs that three months from 
that day (on February 2, 1811) commercial inter- 



74 DANIEL WEBSTER 

course with Great Britain would end, unless the 
orders in council should be recalled before the 
expiration of the three months' period. But Great 
Britain denied that the Berlin and Milan decrees 
were repealed, refused to recall or modify the or- 
ders in council, and the war followed. 

In their attacks on the administration the Fed- 
eralists took the ground that if war had to come 
it should have been made against Prance as well 
as Great Britain; that she was the first to attack 
neutrals; that she was still their enemy; that the 
Berlin and Milan decrees had never been repealed, 
and in proof of this pointed to the speech of Napo- 
leon in March, 1811, to the deputies from the Han- 
seatic League, plainly stating that "the decrees of 
Berlin and Milan are the fundamental laws of my 
empire," and to decisions of the French courts of 
admiralty. The Republicans in reply declared that 
war on France would be infamous ; that her decrees 
were not in force; and pointed to other decisions 
of the French admiralty courts and to a letter of 
M. Champagny, Minister of Foreign Affairs, as- 
serting that the decrees had been revoked. 

In the midst of this angry dispute, the President 
laid before Congress a document that made mat- 
ters worse than before. It was a letter from the 
American minister at Paris stating that one day in 
May, 1812, the Duke of Bassano had assured him 
that the Berlin and Milan decrees had been re- 
voked as far back as April, 1811 ; that their revoca- 



CONGRESSMAN 75 

tion had been amioimced to our then minister ; and 
that a copy of the repealing decree had been sent 
to the French minister at Washington for delivery 
to the Secretary of State. If this were so, then 
Madison, the Federalists claimed, had suppressed 
the information ; had furnished Great Britain with 
her only pretext for refusing to recall the orders 
in council; had suffered his country to enter on 
a war ruinous to trade ; and was responsible for all 
the distress, all the expense, and all the blood that 
had been or might be shed. The Republicans en- 
tered a flat denial to all this, and did not hesitate 
to say that Bassano had lied. The question thus 
turned on the veracity of the duke, and a demand 
was made "that the subject be brought into notice 
at the approaching session of Congress, and that 
measures be taken which will at least force the 
President to say whether the declaration of Bas- 
sano to Mr. Barlow is true or false. ' ' 

Seizing on this as a good ground from which 
to attack the administration, Webster made it the 
subject of his resolutions of inquiry. Pie called 
on the President to inform the House when, by 
whom, and in what manner the repeal of the French 
decrees was first made known to the government; 
whether Mr. Russell, the late charge of the United 
States at Paris, had ever admitted or denied the 
truth of the statement of the Duke of Bassano; 
whether the French minister at Washington ever 
informed the government of the repeal of the de- 



76 DANIEL WEBSTER 

crees; and, in case the first information was that 
communicated to Mr. Barlow by the Duke of Bas- 
sano in 1812, whether the government had ever 
required of France any explanation why the re- 
pealing decree had so long been concealed, and if 
such explanation had been given, whether it had 
been followed by a remonstrance. 

The debate which now arose ran on for four 
days, greatly excited the House, drew large crowds, 
and was still at its height when the opposition gave 
way, and each resolution was carried by a hand- 
some majority. 

Webster's story of what happened during the 
four days is told in a series of daily letters to his 
friend March, in New York. ''The resolutions," 
which he forwards to Mr. March, with a request to 
insert them in the "Commercial Advertiser" and 
send copies to certain gentlemen he names, "were 
offered yesterday. What the House will do with 
them I cannot say. The question to consider was 
carried— one hundred and thirty-two to twenty- 
eight. I have done what I thought my duty. I am 
easy about the result." "Mr. Bibb asked me not 
to call up my resolutions till to-morrow. He said 
he was willing to vote for the four first. Whether 
he really so intends I cannot say. If the party 
wishes to oppose them and give us battle, so be it. 
If any fault is found with my resolutions in your 
city, let me know it." 

"The resolutions have passed, unaltered except- 



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CONGRESSMAN 79 

ing the usual saving clause in the last resolution, 
which was left out by accident. I made no speech. 
When I came to the House this morning, Calhoun 
told me the motion for indefinite postponement 
would be withdrawn, his motion to amend with- 
drawn, and he and some of his friends should vote 
for these resolutions as they are. I, of course, 
could not object. They have acted very strangely. 
A dozen motions made and withdrawn— some pull- 
ing one way, some another. They do not manage 
like so many Solomons." 

"No one," said a newspaper of the day, "who 
hurried to the House yesterday morning expected 
an abandonment of all opposition on the part of 
the majority. But such was the fact. Many of 
the leaders of the Republican party voted for the 
resolution. This singular and unexpected com- 
promise, after a debate that promised to excite not 
a little asperity, has puzzled every one not informed 
of the reasons which induced the majority to con- 
cede the information. We think it highly probable 
that the President has been consulted on the sub- 
ject and has advised the observance of the course 
ultimately adopted." The resolutions having been 
approved by the House, Webster and a fellow- 
member were sent with them to the White House, 
or, to use his own words, "Mr. Rhea, after my 
resolutions passed, made a little resolution calling 
for information on the Prince Regent's Declara- 
tion—passed. The Speaker has appointed me and 



80 DANIEL WEBSTER 

old Rhea to carry the resolutions to the palace!!— 
I never swear." 

' ' You have learned the fate of my resolutions, ' ' 
Webster wrote to his brother. "We had a warm 
time of it for four days, and then the other side 
declined further discussion. I had prepared my- 
self for a little speech, but the necessity of speak- 
ing was prevented. I went with Rhea of Tennessee 
to deliver the resolutions to the President. I found 
him in bed, sick of a fever. I gave them to him, 
and he merely answered that they would be at- 
tended to. We have received no answer." In an- 
other letter he draws a more graphic picture: "I 
went on Tuesday to the palace to present the reso- 
lutions. The President was in his bed, sick of a 
fever, his nightcap on his head, his wife attending 
him. I think he will find no relief from my pre- 
scription. . . . How will Madison answer the 
part of [the] resolutions calling for his correspon- 
dence with Serurier? In truth, there never was a 
party acted so awkwardly as the Demos did through 
the whole of that business." But "he will be fol- 
lowed up on that subject. An inquiry into the 
failure on the frontier is talked of; I think there 
will not be any time this session. We have sev- 
eral projects, and a good many good hands to give 
a lift. We are trying to organize our opposition 
and bring all our forces to act in concert. There 
is recently appointed a kind of committee to super- 
intend our concerns. ' ' Of this Webster was a mem- 



CONGRESSMAN 81 

ber. A career of six weeks in the House had made 
him a leader of his party and brought him reputa- 
tion as a speaker. One who was present when the 
resolutions were offered asserts that no member 
"ever riveted the attention of the House so com- 
pletely in his first speech"; that "members left 
their seats and came out on the floor that they 
might see him face to face; listened attentively, 
and when he finished, went up and warmly con- 
gratulated the orator." But a better testimonial 
as to the effect of that maiden speech is furnished 
by Chief Justice Marshall. Nearly twenty years 
later, when the name of Webster was known over 
all the land, a copy of his ' ' Speeches and Forensic 
Arguments" was sent to the great judge, who went 
straightway to Justice Story, and expressed his 
regret that two were not in the collection— that on 
the resolutions calling for proof of the repeal of 
the French decrees, and another on the previous 
question. "I read these speeches," said Marshall, 
"with very great pleasure and satisfaction at the 
time. When the first was delivered I did not know 
Mr. Webster; but I was so much struck with it 
that I did not hesitate then to state that Mr. Web- 
ster was a very able man, and would become one 
of the very first statesmen in America, and per- 
haps the very first." 

When at last the President's answer came, Web- 
ster had gone back to Portsmouth, and action was 
put ofT to the regular session. By that time the 



82 DANIEL WEBSTER 

steering committee had formed a plan of opposi- 
tion, and when the session was well under way, 
one member offered resolutions calling on the 
President for an account of the state of our rela- 
tions with France, another for information ex- 
plaining the cause of the failure of our arms along 
the northern frontier, and Webster for the consid- 
eration of the President's answer to his resolutions 
of the last session. To this the House consented 
so far as to make them the order for a certain day ; 
but the discussion never took place. ' ' They are de- 
termined, ' ' he wrote to his brother, ' ' not to take up 
my resolutions this session; of this I am certain. 
But on the loan bill we hope to get a blow at them. ' ' 
His own chance "to get a blow at them" came 
when the bill for the encouragement of enlistments 
was put upon its passage. While the details of the 
bill were under debate he said nothing; but when 
it had been read the third time he could contain 
himself no longer, and hastily putting together an 
outline of what he would say, delivered the first of 
his many celebrated speeches. 

"I inclose you," he wrote to Ezekiel, "a few 
creatures called speeches. One of them you will 
find I have corrected, in some of its printer's errors, 
with my pen. Please do the same with the rest 
before they go out of your hands. I shall send a 
few to your townsmen ; you will learn who by look- 
ing at the post-office, for I have not my list by me 
now, and so cannot say exactly for whom I shall 



CONGRESSMAN 83 

send to you. Of those that come to your hands 
give them in my name to those you think proper, 
Federalists or Democrats. 

' ' The speech is not exactly what it ought to be ; 
I had not time. I had no intention of speak- 
ing till nine o'clock in the mora in" - n delivered 
the thing about two. I could maiv^ *» >tter, but 
I dare say you think it would be easier to make a 
new one than to mend it. It was well enough re- 
ceived at the time, and our side of the House said 
they would have it in this form. So much for 
speeches. ' ' 

"The thing," as he states, was hastily put to- 
gether; but it had little to do with the questions 
under debate and much with the policy of the ad- 
ministration. All the pent-up opposition which 
had been rankling in his breast since he first took 
his seat in the House now found an outlet. The 
speech was really delivered to his constituents, was 
at best only a good campaign document, and, be- 
fore election day came around, was used as such. 
But when he next addressed the House his sub- 
ject was more serious, and he had something to say 
on a question soon to become a living issue. 

The President, in a special message to the House, 
had asked for an embargo. Our coast from Rhode 
Island southward was then in a state of rigorous 
blockade ; but New England was not molested, and 
into her ports came British ships disguised as neu- 
trals and loaded with such goods as found a ready 



84 DANIEL WEBSTER 

market in the South. These, loaded on wagons, 
were carried as far as Charleston and Augusta. 
But the raw cotton the wagons brought back to 
Newburyport and Boston was less in value than 
the manufactured wares they took to the Carolinas 
and Georgia, and a heavy balance remained to be 
settled in specie. To stop this trade, prevent the 
export of gold and silver, inflict on the seaports 
of New England the same hardships the blockade 
imposed elsewhere, and cut off the supply of food 
passing the boundary into Canada, was the object 
of Madison's request. With it Congress at once 
complied, and the first act of the session was an- 
other embargo law. But scarcely was it in force 
when a vessel arrived at Annapolis with the offer 
of Castlereagh to negotiate for peace, and with 
newspapers describing the defeat at Leipsic. Na- 
poleon was now overthrown; the armies of the 
Allies had crossed the Rhine; Holland was given 
her old-time boundary ; and all decrees and orders 
in council were things of the past. To keep up 
an embargo was madness, and in March, 1814, 
Madison asked for its repeal. The message was 
hailed by all Federalists with delight, and when 
the bill repealing the whole restrictive system was 
before the House, Webster gave expression to his 
feelings in joyous terms. 

"I am happy to be present at the office now to 
be performed, and to act a part in the funeral cere- 
monies of what has been called the restrictive sys- 



«*. 



CONGRESSMAN 85 

tern. The occasion, I think, will justify a temper- 
ate and moderate exultation on the part of those 
who have constantly opposed this system of poli- 
tics and uniformly foretold its miserable end. I 
congratulate my friends on the triumph of their 
principles. At the same time, I would not refuse 
condolence to the few surviving friends to whose 
affections t 1 ^ - deceased was precious, who are over- 
whelmed with affliction at its sudden dissolution, 
and who sorrow most of all that they shall see its 
face no more. The system, sir, which we are now 
about to explode, is likely to make no inconsider- 
able figure in our history. It was originally offered 
to the people of this country as a kind of political 
faith. It was to be believed, not examined. They 
were to act upon, not reason about, it. No saint 
in the calendar ever had a set of followers less at 
liberty or less disposed to indulge troublesome in- 
quiry than some, at least, of those on whom this 
system depended for support. Yet, notwithstand- 
ing all this, in a moment, in the twinkling of an 
eye, the whole system is dissolved. The embargo 
act, the non-importation act, and all the crowd of 
additions and supplements, together with all their 
garniture of messages, reports, and resolutions, 
are tumbling undistinguished into one common 
grave. But yesterday this policy had a thousand 
friends and supporters; to-day it is fallen and 
prostrate, and few ' so poor to do it reverence. ' 
' ' Sir, a government which cannot administer the 



86 DANIEL WEBSTER 

affairs of a nation without producing so frequent 
and such violent alterations in the ordinary occu- 
pations and pursuits of private life has, in my 
opinion, little claim to the regard of this commu- 
nity. It has been said that the system of commer- 
cial restrictions was favorable to domestic manu- 
factures, and that if it did nothing but induce the 
habit of providing for our own wants by our own 
means, it would deserve to be esteemed a blessing. 
Something is, indeed, said in the message in rela- 
tion to the continuance of the double duties 'as a 
more effectual safeguard and encouragement to 
our growing manufactures.' Sir, I consider the 
imposition of double duties as a mere financial 
measure. Its great object was to raise revenue, not 
to foster manufactures. In respect to manufac- 
tures it is necessary to speak with some precision. 
"I am not, generally speaking, their enemy; I 
am their friend : but I am not for rearing them, or 
any other interest, in hotbeds. I would not legis- 
late precipitately, even in favor of them. I feel 
no desire to push capital into extensive manufac- 
tures faster than the general progress of our wealth 
and population propels it. I am not in haste to see 
Sheffields and Birminghams in America. Until the 
population of the country shall be greater in pro- 
portion to its extent, such establishments would 
be impracticable if attempted, and if practicable, 
they would be unwise. I am not anxious to accel- 
erate the approach of the period when the great 
mass of American labor shall not find its employ- 



CONGRESSMAN 87 

ment in the field ; when the young men of the coun- 
try shall be obliged to shut their eyes upon external 
nature, upon the heavens and the earth, and im- 
merse themselves in close and unwholesome work- 
shops ; when they shall be obliged to shut their ears 
to the bleating of their own flocks upon their own 
hills, and to the voice of the lark that cheers them 
at their plows, that they may open them in dust 
and smoke and steam to the perpetual whirl of 
spools and spindles, and the grating of rasps and 
saws. 

''It is the true policy of government to suffer 
the different pursuits of society to take their own 
course, and not to give excessive bounties or en- 
couragements to one over another. This also is the 
true spirit of the Constitution. It has not, in my 
opinion, conferred on the government this power 
of changing the occupations of the people. ' ' 

Opposition to the policy of the administration 
was Webster's guiding principle. Neither at this 
nor during the next session of Congress did he 
introduce any bill or support any measure of real 
importance to his countrymen. He was simply a 
Federalist, bound to embarrass the President at 
every turn, though the enemy's fleets were block- 
ading the ports and the enemy 's troops were actu- 
ally in possession of a portion of the soil of his 
country. How far he was willing to carry this 
resistance is well set forth by his vote against the 
tax bill at the following session. 

The government was then hard put. During 



88 DANIEL WEBSTER 

the summer of 1814 a British fleet had come up 
the Chesapeake Bay, and a force of the enemy had 
marched inland and burned the Capitol, the " pal- 
ace, ' ' and some public buildings. The State banks 
outside of New England had suspended specie pay- 
ment, and the federal treasury, unable to use its 
funds, was on the verge of bankruptcy. All Maine 
east of the Penobscot River was in British hands, 
and had been formally declared British territory; 
and it was well known that an expedition against 
New Orleans was under way. 

In our day the man who, in such a crisis, think- 
ing only of his party, should forget his country 
and seek to withhold the means needed to rescue 
it from the dangers that pressed on every side, 
would merit and receive the execrations of all 
right-minded persons. It was not so, however, in 
the time of Madison, and when the Republicans 
asked for a national bank, a conscript law, and 
more taxes, the Federalists had nothing but ridi- 
cule and opposition to offer. To a bank, if re- 
quired to redeem its notes at all times in specie, 
Webster had no objection; but he gave his vote 
against every form of bank the Republicans sub- 
mitted, "had a hand," as he expressed it, "in over- 
throwing Mr. Monroe's conscription," and voted 
against the taxes. 

As yet no really patriotic sentiment seems to 
animate him. No word of encouragement escapes 
his lips. He will support the war if fought on the 



CONGRESSMAN 89 

ocean; he will express his opinion on the conduct 
of the war as freely and boldly as he pleases ; but 
he will not do anything which can be twisted into 
approval or support of the administration. Nor 
do his letters during this period show any opinion 
of his own as to the true public policy. On the 
other hand, he is rather pleased as the difficulties 
become greater. ''Poor Madison does not know 
what to do"; "Never was more sinking fortune"; 
"Poor Madison, I doubt whether he has had a 
night's sleep these three weeks"; "The taxes go 
heavily; I fear they will not go at all. They are in 
a great pickle. Who cares?" are the sort of ex- 
pressions with which his correspondence abounds. 
Webster had now finished his first term as a 
member of the House, and was easily reelected to a 
second. But the place seems to have lost its charm. 
The pay was small, the duties were great, while 
his need of a larger income and time to earn it was 
imperative. "You must contrive some way for 
me to get rich as soon as there is peace," he writes. 
The great fire at Portsmouth in December, 1813, 
which burned two hundred and forty buildings and 
laid bare a tract fifteen acres in extent, had de- 
stroyed his house and library, and inflicted a loss 
of some six thousand dollars. The savings of years 
were swept away and must be made good again. 
To attempt this in Portsmouth, where, at most, 
only a couple of thousands could be gathered each 
year, when the same industry applied elsewhere 



90 DANIEL WEBSTER 

would yield richer returns, seemed unwise. But 
where should the new hazard be made? Many in- 
ducements drew him to Boston, and as the session 
of 1815-16 wore away, he began to think of aban- 
doning New England and settling in Albany or 
New York, and in March wrote to Ezekiel : " I have 
settled my purpose to remove from New Hamp- 
shire in the course of the summer. I have thought 
of Boston, New York, and Albany. On the whole, 
I shall probably go to Boston, although I am not 
without some inducement to go into the State of 
New York. Our New England prosperity and im- 
portance are passing away. This is fact. The 
events of the times, the policy of England, the con- 
sequences of our war, and the treaty of Ghent, have 
bereft us of our commerce, the great source of our 
wealth. If any great scenes are to be acted in this 
country within the next twenty years, New York 
is the place in which those scenes are to be viewed." 

Yet, in spite of the fair prospects of New York, 
he chose Boston, moved thither in the summer of 
1816, and thenceforth remained a citizen of Massa- 
chusetts. Removal to Boston cost him his seat in 
Congress. But it mattered little, as he could not, 
in all probability, have been reelected, for, in com- 
mon with eighty other congressmen, he had voted 
for the compensation bill. 

Since the establishment of government under the 
Constitution the pay of congressmen had been six 




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^WrSflflflaiil ssi 



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I Jtif 



Ki»su >mi 



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Webster's house in 
somerset street, boston 



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SEAL. 



WEBSTER'S CHAIR 
AND STICK. 



CONGRESSMAN 93 

dollars for each day they attended, and mileage 
from and to their homes. But, in the course of a 
quarter-century, salaries had gone up, the cost of 
living had greatly increased, and members who 
had not other sources of income found it impos- 
sible to live as they wished on what had become 
low wages. With many misgivings and explana- 
tions, the daily allowance was therefore changed 
to a salary of fifteen hundred dollars a year. Some 
grumbling and fault-finding was expected. But 
when constituents, grand juries, legislatures, pub- 
lic meetings, and the press from Maine to Louisi- 
ana joined in one universal denunciation of every 
man who voted aye, the situation became serious. 
Nine members of the House during the summer of 
1816 resigned in disgust, and refused to serve out 
their terms. Scores of others were not renomi- 
nated, and in the autumn elections State after State 
changed its representation completely, or sent back 
such members only as had opposed the law. Not 
one of the old members was returned from Ohio, 
Delaware, and Vermont. Half the New Hampshire 
delegation was retired; all but one of the Geor- 
gians; five out of nine Marylanders; ten out of 
twenty-three Pennsylvanians ; six out of nine 
South-Carolinians. Five out of seven members 
from Connecticut were not even renominated. 
That the people should grow angry over a matter 
so clearly for the public good, yet remain heedless 
of others that injured them much, disgusted Web- 



91 DANIEL WEBSTER 

ster, and brought on one of the fits of political 
hopelessness from which he often suffered. 

' ' We are doing nothing now, ' ' he wrote in Janu- 
ary, 1817, "but to quarrel with one of our laws of 
last session, called the horse law, its object being 
to pay the Kentucky men for all the horses which 
died in that country during the war. So far very 
well; but there was a clause put in to pay for all 
houses and buildings burned by the enemy on ac- 
count of having been a military depot. This played 

the very d . All the Niagara frontier, the city 

of Washington, etc., wherever the enemy destroyed 
anything, was proved to have been a military de- 
pot : one tavern, twenty-seven thousand dollars, be- 
cause some officers or soldiers lodged in the house 
a day or two before the burning; one great rope- 
walk, because a rope had been sent there to be 
mended for the navy-yard; etc. 

' ' We then have the compensation [bill] to repeal, 
which I trust will not take us long. Then comes 
from the Senate the 'conscription law,' as you 
justly call it. What inducement has one to resist 
this or anything else ? Two years ago, with infinite 
pains and labor, we defeated Mr. Monroe's con- 
scription. Nobody thanked us for it. Last win- 
ter our friends in the Senate got this militia bill 
thrown out ; nobody knew or cared anything about 
it. For two or three years Massachusetts has been 
paying from ten to twenty-five per cent, more duties 
on importations than Pennsylvania or Maryland. 



CONGRESSMAN 95 

At the close of last session we tried to do some- 
thing for her relief; but her federal legislature 
takes no notice of the abominable injustice done 
her, or the plain violations of the Constitution and 
the laws which have taken place to her great injury. 
All are silent and quiet. But when her federal 
members, who come here to be kicked and stoned 
and abused in her behalf, think proper to raise 
their compensation so that it will defray their ex- 
penses, she denounces them man by man without 
an exception. No respect for talents, services, 
character, or feelings restrains her from joining 
with the lowest democracy in its loudest cry." 



CHAPTER V 

A CONGRESSMAN FROM MASSACHUSETTS 

THE next five years of his life were spent in the 
practice of law in the courts of Massachusetts 
and before the Supreme Court of the United States. 
The times were bad. Never had the country known 
a period of such severe and wide-spread business 
depression. Years afterward, men who remem- 
bered those days still spoke of them as the "hard 
times of eighteen hundred and starve to death." 
Yet, in spite of this, the account-books of Webster 
show that during the worst year of all he received 
fifteen thousand dollars in fees. But the gain in 
fame was greater than in money, for then was it 
that he won the Dartmouth College case, delivered 
the great speech at Plymouth, and achieved dis- 
tinction in the convention called to amend the 
Constitution of Massachusetts. ' ' Our friend Web- 
ster, ' ' said Judge Story, ' ' has gained a noble repu- 
tation. It was a glorious field for him, and he had 
an ample harvest. The whole force of his great 
mind was brought out, and in several speeches he 
commanded universal admiration." It was indeed 
a glorious field for him. For twenty years he 

96 



CONGRESSMAN 97 

had been studying what he well called ' ' the nature 
and constitution of society and government in 
this country," and now, for the first time, found 
an occasion to state his opinions at length. The 
speech on the judiciary, that on religion as a quali- 
fication for office-holding, and, above all, that on 
property as the basis of representation in the Sen- 
ate, were much admired, and carried conviction 
to his listeners. Of this last he was not a little 
proud, and five days after the delivery of it in the 
convention he repeated it, word for word, to the 
crowd that gathered in the little church at Ply- 
mouth, as part of the oration on "The First Set- 
tlement of New England." 

With each increase of fame as a lawyer and an 
orator, friends and admirers grew more and more 
urgent that he should once more return to public 
life. He did, indeed, consent to serve as a Presi- 
dential elector, and for ten days sat in the Massa- 
chusetts legislature. Many years afterward, in the 
course of a speech, Webster referred to this service, 
and told his hearers a story quite characteristic of 
the man. "It so happens," said he, "that all the 
public services which I have rendered in this world, 
in my day and generation, have been connected 
with the general government. I think I ought to 
make one exception. I was ten days a member of 
the Massachusetts legislature, and I turned my 
thoughts to the search for some good object in 
which I could be useful in that position ; and, after 



/ 



98 DANIEL WEBSTER 

much reflection, I introduced a bill which, with the 
general consent of both houses of the Massachu- 
setts legislature, passed into a law, and is now a 
law of the State, which enacts that no man in the 
State shall catch trout in any other manner than 
in the old way, with an ordinary hook and line." 
To keep aloof from public life, however, was 
not possible. To the end of his life Webster was, 
above all else, a student and an expounder of con- 
stitutional government, and the period we have now 
reached was one in which those principles were 
everywhere discussed. In the Supreme Court, 
Marshall was handing down one by one decisions 
upholding the jurisdiction of the court, denning 
the powers of Congress, limiting the powers of the 
States, and completely changing the popular un- 
derstanding of the place of the judiciary in our 
system of government. All about him new State 
constitutions were being made and old ones 
mended. Within the brief period of five years, In- 
diana, Illinois, Alabama, Mississippi, Connecticut, 
Maine, and Missouri had each framed a new in- 
strument of government, and New York, Massa- 
chusetts, and Maryland had greatly changed their 
early forms. The extension of the franchise, the 
basis of representation, the qualifications for of- 
fice-holding, were everywhere discussed. Eco- 
nomic and industrial issues had come to the front 
and were pressing for settlement. The right of 
Congress to protect manufactures, to charter a na- 



CONGRESSMAN 99 

tional bank, to build roads and canals, to prohibit 
slavery in a new State, were topics to which Web- 
ster could not be indifferent. 

A great opportunity now lay before him, and 
when, one day in August, 1822, a committee from a 
meeting of delegates from all the wards of Boston 
invited him to represent the district of Suffolk in 
Congress, he consented, and in December, 1823, 
was again a member of the House. 

The spirit in which he entered on the new service 
is finely set forth in a letter to Judge Story, writ- 
ten in May, 1823 : " I never felt more down sick on 
all subjects connected with the public than at the 
present moment. I have heretofore cherished a 
faint hope that New England would some time or 
other get out of this miserable, dirty squabble of 
local politics, and assert her proper character and 
consequence. But I at length give up. I feel the 
hand of fate upon us, and to struggle is in vain. 
We are doomed to be hewers of wood and drawers 
of water, and I am prepared henceforth to do my 
part of the drudgery without hoping for an end. 
What has sickened me beyond remedy is the tone 
and temper of these disputes. We are disgraced 
beyond help or hope by these things. There is a 
Federal interest, a Democratic interest, a bankrupt 
interest, an orthodox interest, and a middling in- 
terest; but I see no national interest, nor any na- 
tional feeling in the whole matter." 

Happily, he was not prepared to do his part of 

L.ofC. 



100 DANIEL WEBSTER 

the drudgery without hoping for an end. So far 
as he was concerned, the end had come. The 
"miserable squabble of local politics," which so 
strongly affected his conduct during his first term 
of service in the House, was to influence him no 
more. At last he had risen to the plane of states- 
manship, and was to see the coining issues in their 
bearings on the nation. 

As the autumn wore away, and the time drew 
near when Congress was to meet, he began, in his 
usual way, to turn over in his mind what he should 
do. As a student of constitutional government 
and a lover of liberty, the unhappy failure of the 
republican movement in South America, the sud- 
den rise of liberalism in Europe, the stamping 
out of every trace of democracy by the Holy Al- 
lies at Naples and in Spain, and the glorious strug- 
gle of the Greeks for independence, interested him 
deeply. The cause of the Greeks, and their ap- 
peal to the one real republic of the world, touched 
him. 

"If nobody does it who can do it better," he 
wrote in November to his friend Everett, "I shall 
certainly say something of the Greeks. The mis- 
erable issue of the Spanish revolution makes the 
Greek cause more interesting, and I begin to think 
they have character enough to carry them through 
the contest with success." This purpose grew 
stronger the more he thought it over, and when, 
on reaching New York, he took up the October 



CONGRESSMAN 101 

number of the ' ' North American Review ' ' and read 
Mr. Everett's article on the Greeks, he firmly re- 
solved to help them. "I have found leisure here," 
he wrote, "and not till now, to read your admir- 
able article on the Greeks. Since I left Boston, 
also, we have had important information from 
them. I feel a great inclination to say or do some- 
thing in their behalf early in the session, if I know 
what to say or to do. If you can readily direct me 
to any source from which I can obtain more infor- 
mation than is already public respecting these af- 
fairs, I would be obliged to you to do so." 

Mr. Everett having responded in the most hand- 
some manner, sent him manuscripts and bits of 
information, and posted him in all the details of 
the war, Webster wrote to him: "I have gone 
over your two manuscripts with the map before 
me, and think I have mastered the campaigns of 
1821-22 historically and topographically. My 
wonder is, where and how your most extraordi- 
nary industry has been able to find all the mate- 
rials for so interesting and detailed a narrative. 
I hope you will send me a digested narrative of 
the events of this year so far as they are to be 
learned from the last accounts. 

"I have spoken to several gentlemen on the sub- 
ject of a motion respecting Greece, and all of them 
approve it. The object which I wish to bring 
about, and which I believe may be brought about, 
is the appointment of a commissioner to go to 



102 DANIEL WEBSTER 

Greece. Two modes present themselves. A mo- 
tion to that effect and a speech in support of it, 
giving some account of the rise and progress of 
the Greek revolution, and showing the propriety 
and utility of the proposed mission. The other 
is to raise a committee on the subject and let there 
be a report containing the same matter. Which- 
ever may be adopted, your communications are 
invaluable, and I wish you would tell me frankly 
how far I can use them without injury to your 
January article in the 'North American.' W"e can 
wait until that article is out, if you think best, but 
my impression is, we should do well to bring for- 
ward the subject within ten or twelve days from 
this time, while the House is not yet much occu- 
pied, and while the country feels the warmth com- 
municated by the President's message. I intend 
to see, in the course of this day and to-morrow, Mr. 
R. King, Mr. Clay, and perhaps the President, and 
have their views on this matter. ' ' 

But Monroe, in his message, had announced the 
famous doctrine that still bears his name, and 
was little inclined to meddle with affairs in Greece. 
"There was, I believe," Webster continues, "a 
meeting of the members of the administration yes- 
terday, at which, inter alia, they talked of Greece. 
The pinch is that in the message the President has 
taken pretty high ground as to this continent, and 
is afraid of the appearance of interfering in the 
concerns of the other continent also. This does 



CONGEESSMAN 103 

not weigli greatly with me; I think we have as 
much community with the Greeks as with the in- 
habitants of the Andes and the dwellers on the 
borders of the Vermilion Sea. If nothing should 
occur to alter my present purpose, I shall bring 
forward a motion on the subject on Monday, and 
shall propose to let it lie on the table for a fort- 
night. ' ' 

On the day chosen Webster accordingly moved 
that provision ought to be made to defray the ex- 
pense of sending an agent or commissioner to 
Greece whenever the President should deem it ex- 
pedient to make an appointment. For six weeks 
the resolution lay on the table. During this time 
Webster was busy with his speech. "I believe," 
he wrote, ' ' there will be a good deal of discussion, 
although, if any, pretty much on one side. While 
some of our Boston friends, as I know, think this 
resolution even quixotic, leading to a crusade, it 
will be objected to strongly by many on account 
of its tame milk-and-water character. The mer- 
chants are naturally enough a little afraid about 
their cargoes at Smyrna ; besides, Greece is a great 
way off, etc. 

' ' My intention is to justify the resolution against 
two classes of objectors, those that suj^ose it not 
to go far enough, and those that suppose it to go 
too far; then, to give some little history of the 
Greek revolution, express a pretty strong convic- 
tion of its ultimate success, and persuade the 



104 DANIEL WEBSTER 

House, if I can, to take the merit of being the first 
government among all civilized nations who have 
publicly rejoiced in the emancipation of Greece. 
I feel now that I could make a pretty good speech 
for my friends the Greeks, but I shall get cool in 
fourteen days, unless you keep up my tempera- 
ture. ' ' 

The intent and purpose of the speech, however, 
were not understood. It was believed that Web- 
ster had seized on the topic because it was upper- 
most in the public mind, because of the feeling 
and wide-spread interest it had awakened, and 
because it would enable him to mark his return to 
Congress by an oration finer than that delivered 
in the old First Church at Plymouth. When, 
therefore, he rose to speak, on the day appointed 
to consider his resolution, and looked over the sea 
of eager faces drawn to the House by the expec- 
tation of a display of oratory, he felt in duty bound 
to say that ''he was afraid that, so far as he was 
concerned, the excited expectations of the public 
mind, on the present occasion, would be disap- 
pointed." But the public mind suffered no dis- 
appointment. ' ' The report of your speech, ' ' wrote 
Joseph Hopkinson, "meager as it is, shows the 
foot of Hercules ; but we want the whole body, and 
trust you will give it to us. Mr. Hemphill wrote 
me it was the best he ever heard. ' ' 

While the House admired the oratory, it would 
not be persuaded by the argument. Member after 



CONGRESSMAN 107 

member spoke in opposition. Some thought the 
resolution little better than a declaration of war. 
Others feared it would lead to war. Still others 
felt so sure that the Holy Allies would soon attack 
the South American republics, and we be called 
on to make good the stand taken by the President 
in his message, that they shrank from ''mingling 
in the turmoils of Europe" when we might our- 
selves, in a little while, be struggling for the pres- 
ervation of our own liberties. After a week of 
debating the Committee of the Whole rose with- 
out asking leave to sit again, and for a second time 
a resolution offered by Webster never reached a 
vote. ' ' The motion, ' ' he wrote Mr. Mason, ' ' ought 
to have been adopted, and would have been by a 
general vote but for certain reasons, which the 
public will never know, and which I will not trou- 
ble you with now. I could divide the House very 
evenly on the subject now, and jjerhaps carry a 
vote. Whether I shall stir it again must be con- 
sidered. Mr. Adams ' opposition to it was the most 
formidable obstacle." A few years later, when a 
writer in the "Philadelphia Quarterly" reviewed 
a volume of his collected speeches, Webster wrote 
to the reviewer and said: "One word about the 
Greek speech. I think I am more fond of this 
child than of any of the family. My object, when 
the resolution was introduced, was not understood. 
It was imagined that, seeing the existence of a 
warm public sympathy for the suffering Greeks, 
the purpose was only to make a speech responsive 



108 DANIEL "WEBSTER 

and gratifying to that sympathy. The real object 
was larger. It was to take occasion of the Greek 
revolution, and the conduct held in regard to it 
by the great Continental Powers, to exhibit the 
principles laid down by those powers as the basis 
on which they meant to maintain the peace of 
Europe. This purpose made it necessary to ex- 
amine accurately the proceedings of all the Con- 
gresses from that of Paris in 1814 to that of Lay- 
bach in 1821. I read those proceedings with a 
good deal of attention, and endeavored to extract 
the principle on which they were founded. There 
is nothing in the book which I think so well of 
as parts of this speech. Events have shown that 
some opinions here expressed were well founded. 
A revolution has taken place, and the people re- 
form their constitution and then invite an indi- 
vidual to the throne on condition of governing ac- 
cording to the constitution. Belgium is doing the 
same ; Poland is attempting to do the same. This 
is the spirit of the English Revolution of 1688, but 
it is flat burglary according to the law of Laybach. 
"I was something of a prophet, too, in regard 
to the duration of the French monarchy. See Ply- 
mouth Discourse. But enough ; I am tired of say- 
ing 'I,' 'me,' 'mine.' My dear sir, if the world 
cannot see the merit of my illustrious works, why 
should I (or why should you) trouble ourselves 
to point them out ? " 1 

1 Curtis's Life of Webster. 



CONGRESSMAN 109 

The speech was indeed a great one, was always 
held by Webster to be his best, and was prepared 
with much pains and labor. His rough notes, still 
preserved in the New Hampshire Historical So- 
ciety at Concord, cover eighteen large sheets writ- 
ten on both sides. The interest which attaches to it 
is, therefore, of no common sort, and may justify 
the copying of a couple of pages of the notes, as a 
good illustration of a method of work from which 
to his dying day he never departed. 

Introduction. Memories of An. Greece. But Mod. Gr. 
one subject. 

No Quixotic Emination. An American question, 
on large scale. 

What is the nation ? A reciprocation of message. No 
speeches & answers now. 

If adopted it leaves everything to the President's un- 
restrained discretion. . . . 

If the message be proper, this is not improper. Mes- 
sage, 18 page. 

Our Policy. 

1. Pacific growth, not acquisition. Time, peace & the 
arts, are our agents of greatness. No scheme so magnifi- 
cent, as what our condition promises. 

2. It is a liberal policy, not propagandists, but our side 
is known. 

Age extraordinary; our situation peculiar; the best 
period & the best spot; our progress rapid, we must tax 
ourselves to keep up with it. 

The great question is between absolute Govts.— and 
Regulated Govts. 

Whether Soc. shall have a part in its own Govt. It 
is not content with kind masters. 



110 DANIEL WEBSTER 

The spirit of the age sets strongly in favor of free 
Govts. 

This system is opposed in system by the Great Con- 
tinent '1 Powers. It is opposed wherever it shows itself, 
Naples, Piedmont, Spain and Greece. It is opposed for 
reasons rendering opposition to it as proper in this Coun- 
try, as in Europe. It is opposed on settled principles. 

The question is, what opinions does it become this 
Country to express. 

But let us examine the truth of this. Representation. 

There is the Holy Alliance. 

P. D. 32. 355 page Holy Alliance, an extraordinary 
Sep. 1815. & unnecessary League— Puff erdorf 

—read abstract. Originated with 
Alex 'n.— Shown in or'g'l drft. to 
L'd. Castlereagh, before it was 
shown to the other sovereigns. 
(L'd. C's. Speech, in P. D.) 
But allowing a favorable construction to this, the Al- 
liance has proceeded to Practical Resolutions, of dan- 
gerous import. 

1. All Constitutional rights proceed from the grants 
of Kings— Intimated at the Federation— Charter. 

The speech in behalf of the Greeks delivered 
and his resolution "laid in the tomb," Webster 
took but little active interest in public affairs, and 
turned his attention to private matters and to the 
duties that fell to his committees. Creditors under 
the Spanish treaty of 1819 had long been clamor- 
ing for their money, and a number of them had 
retained Webster to push their claims. The pas- 



CONGRESSMAN 111 

sage of a bill to discharge these debts was with 
him, as he says, "the great business of the ses- 
' sion. ' ' 

Such concerns as formed the daily business of 
the House did not interest him in the least, and 
he quickly fell into the habit of being present in 
body, but absent in mind. In a speech on the com- 
pensation bill of 1816 he had denounced this prac- 
tice in strong terms. ' ' There is, ' ' he said, ' ' some- 
thing radically defective in our system of govern- 
ment. No legislature in the world, however vari- 
ous its concerns or extensive its sphere, sits as 
long as this, notwithstanding that its sphere is so 
greatly contracted by the intervention of eighteen 
distinct legislatures. The system does not compel, 
on the part of its members, that attention which 
the nature of the public business requires. I refer 
to letters and papers on the desks of the members 
every day. They ought to have none of them. 
When a man comes into this House, he ought to 
leave on the threshold every feeling and thought 
not connected with the public service. Private 
letters and private conversation ought not to be 
permitted to encroach on the unity of his object. 
If in any way the attention of the House could 
be fixed on the speaker, there would be an end to 
long speeches, for I defy any man to address any 
assembly of this sort, and address them long, if 
their attention is fixed on him." 

But Webster was older now; evil communica- 



112 DANIEL WEBSTER 

tions had corrupted his good manners, and he had 
become as great an offender as the worst, and, 
shutting his ears to the pleas and arguments of 
many a debater, would spend the hours writing 
letters. To the splendid opportunity which lay 
before one endowed with the qualities which make 
men leaders of their kind, he seems to have been 
blind. Never since the days of the War for Inde- 
pendence was a statesman of the constructive type 
more needed. The old parties founded and led by 
Washington and Jefferson were gone, and new 
ones to take their places were yet to be created. 
Of the issues then before the people all were sec- 
tional ; none was national. That they would some 
day be united and become the basis of parties yet 
to be organized, and that the men who brought 
about this union of local interests would, for years 
to come, direct the policy and "sway the destiny 
of the country, ' ' was inevitable. 

For work of this kind Webster was in no sense 
fitted. The abilities with which nature had so 
richly endowed him, his tastes, his studies, and 
his training pointed to no such career ; and in the 
long run he was thrust aside and outrun by men 
of far less capacity, by demagogues who served 
the times, and, dying, left behind them no lasting 
work as the fruit of a long life spent in the public 
service. In the struggle for leadership which made 
memorable the next four years he was a mere 
looker-on, commentiDg now and then on the would- 



CONGRESSMAN 113 

be Presidents and their chances of success. At 
New York, when on his way to attend Congress, 
he was amazed at the "sudden and extraordinary 
popularity of Mr. Clinton." New Jersey, he was 
inclined to think, would support Mr. Calhoun. At 
Washington every one was asking, ' ' Will a caucus 
be held?" For twenty years past the Republican 
members of the House and Senate used to meet 
some February evening in each Presidential year 
and "recommend" to their fellow-citizens, as they 
said, two men to be President and Vice-President 
of the United States. The "recommendation" 
was often followed by the statement that the men 
named were recommended and in no sense nomi- 
nated; that the recommendation was made in the 
interest of party unity and harmony and to pre- 
vent the wasteful scattering of electoral votes 
among a host of local favorites, not one of whom 
had the smallest chance of election. So long as 
the party was really united and the candidates 
chosen were men whose services in Revolutionary 
days entitled them to the grateful consideration of 
their countrymen, all went well. But now the 
party was not united: it was broken into many 
pieces, and as each fragment had rallied about a 
man of its own selection, a demand arose that the 
old method of nomination by the caucus should 
give way to the new one of nomination by the 
people. 

Of this Webster heartily approved. "It ap- 



114 DANIEL WEBSTER 

pears to me to be our true policy," he wrote to 
Mason, "to oppose all caucuses, so far as our 
course seems to be clear. Beyond this I do not 
think we are bound to proceed at present. To de- 
feat caucus nominations, or prevent them, and to 
give the election, wherever it can be done, to the 
people, are the best means of restoring the body 
politic to its natural and wholesome state. " " One 
thing I hold to be material," he tells his brother: 
"get on without a caucus. It will only require a 
little more pains. It is time to put an end to cau- 
cuses. They make great men little and little men 
great ; the true source of power is the people. The 
Democrats are not democratic enough; they are 
real aristocrats; their leaders wish to govern by 
a combination among themselves, and they think 
they have a fee simple in the people's suffrages. 
Go to the people and convince them that their pre- 
tended friends are a knot of self-interested job- 
bers, who make a trade of patriotism and live on 
popular credulity." 

When at last the caucus is held and Crawford 
and Calhoun are nominated, he believes it "has 
hurt nobody but its friends. Mr. Adams's chance 
seems to increase, and he and General Jackson 
are likely to be the real competitors at last. 
General Jackson's manners are more Presidential 
than those of any of the candidates. He is grave, 
mild, and reserved. My wife is for him decid- 
edly." A month later he is still convinced that 



CONGRESSMAN 115 

Jackson is ' ' making head yet, Arbuthnot and Am- 
brister notwithstanding. The truth is, he is the 
people's candidate in a great part of the Southern 
and Western country. I hope all New England 
will support Mr. Calhoun for the Vice-Presidency. 
If so, he will probably be chosen, and that will be 
a great thing. He is a true man, and will do good 
to the country in that situation." 

By the time the caucus was held, the House had 
settled down to the business of the session, and 
none that came before it was more important than 
the tariff. The act of 1816 had not produced the 
many benefits so hopefully expected. ' ' This meas- 
ure, ' ' said the high-tariff advocates, ' ' was believed 
at the time to be all that was needed; but the im- 
mense accumulation in European markets of goods 
made by labor-saving machines operated by men 
and women content to live on potatoes, rice, and 
water, the exclusion of these goods from British 
markets and of British wares from European mar- 
kets, forced the manufacturers of the Old World 
to seek our ports, where they have been only too 
well received. Their products, cheaply made and 
evading our tariff by fraudulent means, have been 
sold at the auction-block at prices which distance 
competition, and have been paid for with depre- 
ciated bank paper, which the foreign owners have 
exchanged for specie and carried from our coun- 
try. This means the ruin of our banks, our manu- 
factures, our farmers, and a decline in the value 



116 DANIEL WEBSTER 

of land; for now that hundreds of thousands who 
consume food, liquor, fuel, and clothing, but pro- 
duce them not, are out of employment, where will 
our farmers find a sale for the produce that they 
once sold readily at home?" 

The hard times of 1819, the presence in the cities 
of great numbers of idle workmen, the activity of 
the Friends of National Industry, gave uncommon 
force to such arguments, and it soon became im- 
possible for a dozen men to gather for any pur- 
pose without issuing an appeal for a new tariff. 
Grand juries presented the sale of British goods 
as a grievance. Political conventions called on 
voters to defeat such candidates for Congress as 
would not promise to work for a tariff. Public 
meetings discussed the need of protection, and as 
the day drew near when Congress must meet, pe- 
titions went about in every manufacturing town 
and village, and delegates from nine States assem- 
bled at New York. Calling themselves a conven- 
tion of Friends of National Industry, they urged 
the formation of State societies to agitate for a 
tariff and to send representatives to a national 
convention to be held at New York city in 1820. 

Nor were the enemies of a high tariff for pro- 
tection less active. They, too, held meetings, and 
it was at one of these, gathered in Faneuil Hall, in 
1820, that Webster spoke in behalf of a free-trade 
policy. Both sides were now in serious earnest, and 
during four years the issue was constantly before 



CONGRESSMAN 117 

Congress. The bill of 1820 was defeated by the 
casting-vote of the Vice-President; that of 1821 
was not put upon its passage; the House refused 
to consider that of 1822 : but when a fourth at- 
tempt was made in 1823, the Committee on Manu- 
factures laid before the House a bill which the 
supporters of Webster expected him to resist. 
Personally he cared little for it; for the questions 
which filled his thoughts, occupied his hours of 
study, and which, to the last, he delighted to ex- 
pound, were such as sprang from the interpreta- 
tion of our Constitution, our principles of gov- 
ernment, and not such as were concerned with 
political economy. 

"On this same tariff we are now occupied," he 
writes; "it is a tedious, disagreeable subject. The 
House, or a majority of it, are apparently insane; 
at least I think so. Whether anything can be done 
to moderate the disease, I know not. I have very 
little hope. I am aware that something is expected 
of me ; much more than I shall perform. It would 
be easy to make a speech, but I am anxious to do 
something better, if I can; but I see not what I 
can do." "The tariff is yet undecided. It will 
not pass, I think, in its present shape, and I doubt 
if it will pass at all. As yet I have not interfered 
much in the debate, partly because there were 
others more desirous to discuss the details than I 
am, and partly because I have been so much in 
the court. I have done, however, with the court, 



118 DANIEL WEBSTER 

and the whole tariff subject is yet open. I shall 
be looking after it, though I should prefer it should 
die a natural death, by postponement or other easy 
violence. ' ' 

No such death awaited the bill, and when, one 
day in April, 1824, Clay took the floor and deliv- 
ered that famous speech in which he outlined and 
defended his ''American policy," Webster knew 
that the time had come to reply. Never had Clay 
spoken more earnestly, more eloquently, or at 
greater length. He began at eleven in the morn- 
ing and was still on his feet when the House ad- 
journed at half-past three in the afternoon. 

If tradition may be trusted, Webster went home 
that night fully determined to answer Clay, rose 
before daylight the next morning, and spent the 
time till the House met in jotting down on paper 
what he intended to say. But Clay, resuming the 
argument where he left it off the day before, spoke 
for several hours, and was then followed by a 
member from Mississippi, so that the afternoon 
was well spent when Webster began his reply, and 
was in turn forced to continue it on the following 
day. Tradition further tells us that, while he was 
then in the full swing of eloquence, a note was 
thrust into his hand, informing him that the great 
case of Gibbons against Ogden would be called 
for argument the next morning in the Supreme 
Court; that he ended his speech as speedily as 
possible, and went home, and to bed, and to sleep ; 



CONGRESSMAN 119 

that he rose at ten that night, and, with no other 
refreshment than a bowl of tea, toiled steadily till 
nine the next morning, when his brief was done; 
that he then partook of a slight breakfast of tea 
and crackers, read the morning newspapers, went 
to court, and there made that argument which de- 
stroyed the exclusive right to navigate the waters 
of New York by steam, so long enjoyed by Fulton 
and Livingston, and "released every creek and 
river, every lake and harbor, in our country from 
the interference of monopolies." 

Many reasons combine to make the tariff de- 
bate of 1824 of no common interest. Neither 
speaker, it is true, settled the controversy. More 
than three quarters of a century has passed since 
that day, yet the respective merits of free trade 
and protection are as far as ever from settlement, 
and still furnish plentiful material for campaigns 
of education. Nevertheless, it must be admitted 
that the principle and policy of protective tariffs 
have never been better stated than in the brilliant 
speech by Clay, nor more forcibly combated than 
they were in the vigorous reasoning of Webster. 
Clay made the better speech; Webster the better 
argument. In the effort of Clay are plainly visible 
all the characteristics of the man, both great and 
small: his fervid patriotism, his glowing diction, 
his lively imagination, his skill in grouping facts, 
his superficial knowledge, and his inability to rea- 
son calmly to a logical conclusion. In the answer 






120 DANIEL WEBSTER 

of Webster are set forth the keen analysis, the de- 
liberate reasoning, the full knowledge, the mastery 
of principles, which made him great. Nowhere 
else in our annals can be found two speeches of 
deeper interest to the student of economics. 

Of the speech thus hastily prepared and hastily 
delivered, Webster had but a poor opinion. "We 
have heard a great deal of nonsense upon the sub- 
ject, " he wrote Mr. Mason, ''and some of it from 
high quarters. I think you will be surprised at 
Mr. Clay's speech. My speech will be printed, 
and you will get it. Whatever I have done in other 
cases, I must say that in this I have published it 
against my own judgment. I was not expecting 
to speak at that time, nor ready to do so. And 
from Mr. Clay's ending I had but one night to 
prepare. The ideas are right enough, I hope, but 
as a speech it is clumsy, wanting in method, and 
tedious." His friends thought otherwise, and the 
mails soon began to bring him letters full of adu- 
lation and of praise for the Greek and tariff 
speeches. "I received a letter from a friend in 
London," says one correspondent, "dated the 6th 
of March, who justly observes: 'Mr. Webster's 
speech has been received with general approbation 
and applause. It has been translated into Greek 
and printed in London, in order to be distributed 
all over Greece. I am happy that the Demosthenes 
of America has taken the lead in encouraging and 
animating the countrymen of his great prototype. ' 



: 



CONGRESSMAN 121 

I tender my thanks for your lucid and magnificent 
speech on the Tariff. The ground you have as- 
sumed is the only one which history, policy, and 
experience can enable us to maintain with interest 
to the nation. I march with you side by side, in 
all the route you take. If you are not correct, 
there is no truth in induction; there is no wisdom 
among the learned; there is no intelligence to be 
found in Parliament; there is no reliance to be 
placed on the statements of the learned political 
writers on the economy of nations ; in fact, we have 
not any new lights to guide us since the dark ages, 
and must grope on." 



CHAPTER VI 

A NEW ENGLAND FEDERALIST 

THE tariff disposed of, the only question of in- 
terest that remained was the coming election 
of a President. The long list of great names put 
before the voters in the course of three years by 
State legislatures, by conventions, by public meet- 
ings, by caucuses, by the members of Congress, 
had been cut down by time to four— Adams, Jack- 
son, Crawford, and Clay. Could Webster have 
had his wish, Calhoun would have been the suc- 
cessor of Monroe. The great gulf that parted 
them in later years had not as yet begun to yawn. 
Again and again in his letters he calls the illus- 
trious Carolinian "a true man." But the "will 
of the people" assigned to Calhoun the post of 
Vice-President, and of the four who remained as 
candidates for the Presidency the names of only 
three could come before the House of Represen- 
tatives. That Adams, Jackson, and Crawford 
would be the three, Webster seems never to have 
doubted. Not once does he mention the name of 
Clay. Now he is sure that "the novelty of Gen'l 
Jackson is wearing off, and the contest seems to 

be coming back to the old question between Mr. 

122 



A NEW ENGLAND FEDEKALIST 123 

Adams and Mr. Crawford.'' "The events of the 
winter, with the common operation of time, have 
very much mixed up Federalists with some other 
of the parties, and though it is true that some men 
make great efforts to keep up old distinctions, they 
find it difficult. Mr. Adams, I think, sees also that 
exclusion will be a very doubtful policy, and in 
truth I think a little better of the kindness of his 
feelings toward us than I have done. I have not 
seen how Federalists could possibly join with those 
who support Mr. C. The company he keeps at the 
North is my strongest objection to him." 

There were those, however, who were not so 
sure of ' ' the kindness of his feelings ' ' toward Fed- 
eralists. That Mr. ^.dams would forget who it 
was that condemned his conduct in the Senate, 
chose a successor before his term had expired, and 
forced him to resign seemed scarcely human. 
That he would proscribe all Federalists was gener- 
ally believed, and when, a little later, the failure 
of the colleges to elect threw the choice of a Presi- 
dent into the House, a member of the Maryland 
delegation wrote to Webster for advice. The issue 
thus presented to him was critical. In the election 
by the House each of the four-and-twenty States 
was to cast one ballot, and that ballot was to be 
determined by the majority vote of the members 
of the delegation. Maryland sent eight represen- 
tatives, and so evenly were they divided by party 
lines that the writer of the letter declared he be- 



124 DANIEL WEBSTER 

lieved that on his vote hung that of Maryland. 
The reply assured him that Adams would not pro- 
scribe old Federalists as a class, and to secure this 
assurance Webster called on the Secretary of State 
one evening and read the answer he proposed to 
send. In it were the words: 

"For myself, I am satisfied, and shall give him 
my vote cheerfully and steadily. And I am ready 
to say that I should not do so if I did not believe 
that he would administer the government on lib- 
eral principles, not excluding Federalists, as such, 
from his regard and confidence. . . . 

"I wish to see nothing like a portioning, par- 
celing out, or distributing offices of trust among 
men called by different denominations. . . . 
What I think just and reasonable to be expected 
is that, by some one clear and distinct case, it 
may be shown that the distinction above alluded 
to does not operate as cause of exclusion." To 
this Adams objected. "The letter seemed to re- 
quire him, or expect him, to place one Federalist 
in the administration. Here I interrupted him, 
and told him he had misinterpreted the writer's 
meaning. That the letter did not speak of those 
appointments called Cabinet appointments par- 
ticularly, but of appointments generally. With 
that understanding, he said the letter contained his 
opinions. ' ' 

Thus assured, the hesitating member from Mary- 
land cast his vote for Adams, and so made Mary- 



A NEW ENGLAND FEDERALIST 125 

land one of the thirteen States that elected him. 
Had Maryland supported Jackson, he would have 
tied Adams, and the way would have been pre- 
pared for a prolonged contest. Something of this 
sort was feared by Webster. 

4 'As the 9th of February approaches," he wrote, 
"we begin to hear a little more about the election. 
I think some important indications will be made 
soon. A main inquiry is, in what direction Mr. 
Clay and his friends will move. There would 
seem at present to be some reason to think they 
will take a part finally for Mr. Adams. This will 
not necessarily be decisive, but it will be very im- 
portant. After all, I cannot predict results. I be- 
lieve Mr. Adams might be chosen if he or his 
friends would act somewhat differently. But if he 
has good counselors, I know not who they are. I 
would like to know your opinion of what is proper 
to be done in two or three contingencies : 1. If on 
the first of any subsequent ballot Mr. Adams falls 
behind Mr. Crawford and remains so a day or two, 
shall we hold out to the end of the chapter, or shall 
we vote for one of the highest? 2. If for one of 
the highest, say Jackson or Crawford, for which? 
3. Is it advisable under any circumstances to hold 
out and leave the choice to Mr. Calhoun ? 4. Would 
or would not New England prefer conferring the 
power on Calhoun to a choice of General Jack- 
son?" 

The support of Clay was indeed important, and 



126 DANIEL WEBSTER 

the followers of Jackson, Adams, and Crawford 
were seeking it earnestly. Clay seemed, he him- 
self says, "to be the favorite of every one"; 
"strong professions of high consideration and of 
unbounded admiration" met him at every turn; 
he was "transformed from a candidate before the 
people to an elector for the people." Deeply 
aware of the solemn duty thrust upon him, time 
was taken to weigh the facts on which a decision 
must be founded. While he deliberated, rumors 
of every sort were put afloat to awe and influence 
him ; and when these failed, anonymous letters full 
of menace and abuse poured in on him daily. At 
last, when it could no longer be disguised that he 
would support Adams and not Jackson, a member 
of the House from Pennsylvania, in an unsigned 
note to a Philadelphia newspaper, declared that an 
"unholy coalition" had been formed; that Clay 
was to use his influence for Adams; and that 
Adams, if elected, was to make Clay Secretary of 
State. Lest Clay should not see the charge, a 
marked copy of the newspaper was sent him. He 
was stung to the quick, and, in a fit of rage, de- 
nounced the unknown writer in a Washington 
newspaper as "a base and infamous calumniator, 
a dastard, and a liar," and bade him disclose his 
name that he might be held responsible "to all the 
laws which govern men of honor." In plain 
words, he must meet the Speaker on the dueling- 
grounds at Bladcnsburg. Thus challenged, the 



A NEW ENGLAND FEDERALIST 129 

writer disclosed his name, and in a letter to the 
same Washington newspaper informed ' ' H. Clay ' ' 
that he would prove to the satisfaction of unpreju- 
diced minds that a bargain had been made, and 
signed the note "George Kremer"— a representa- 
tive from Pennsylvania. 

What followed on the day that this card ap- 
peared has been described for us in lively terms 
by one who was present in the House. 

The storm of war has at length burst forth. The card 
of Mr. Clay and the other card of Mr. Kremer have 
thrown all here into strong commotion. The morning 
on which the letter appeared everybody was talking 
about pistols and powder. Will he fight? Has he ever 
fought? Will he not excuse himself as coming from 
Pennsylvania? Where will they fight? These were the 
questions which everywhere struck the ear. When Mr. 
Clay entered the House every eye followed him. As to 
Kremer, he was in his seat two hours before the time 
of meeting. They gave no special sign of recognition, 
and soon after the morning business had proceeded, Mr. 
Clay rose and made the statement which you have since 
seen in the papers. Every tongue was hushed, and the 
house was still as an empty church. He spoke low and 
under evident stress of feeling. Mr. Kremer 's assent to 
the proposed investigation was given in his usual high 
and sharp key (he is sometimes jocularly called Geo. 
Screamer), and then came the tug of war. The report 
gives a fair representation of what was said, but the 
manner, the tones, the gestures, the soul of the debate, 
no pen can convey. Kremer is a strong, broad-shoul- 
dered, coarse-looking Pennsylvania farmer, with a florid 



^ 



130 DANIEL WEBSTER 

face and short, stiff, sandy hair. His dress is often slov- 
enly; but his mind is sturdy and vigorous, and when 
much excited he utters a deal of plain sound sense, di- 
rectly to the point. 

The substance of Clay's speech was a request 
for a committee to investigate the charges, and 
when the committee was ordered, Mr. Kremer rose 
in his place and assured the House that he would 
appear and make good all he had said. But when 
the committee met and bade him present his proof, 
he refused to come, and denied the right of the 
House to take action. Webster wrote to his bro- 
ther further in comment on this affair, and on the 
ludicrousness of the great Mr. Clay, of the "Harry 
of the West," Speaker of the House during six 
Congresses, hurrying off in the dusk of a cold win- 
ter morning to exchange shots with the eccentric 
member from Pennsylvania: "We have a little ex- 
citement here, as yon will see ; but there is less than 
there seems. Mr. Clay's ill-judged card has pro- 
duced an avowal, or sort of avowal, which makes 
the whole thing look ridiculous. Mr. Kremer is a 
man with whom one would think of having a shot 
about as soon as with your neighbor, Mr. Simeon 
Atkinson, whom he somewhat resembles. Mr. 
Adams, I believe, and have no doubt, will be 
chosen, probably the first day." 

In this he was quite right: Adams was chosen 
on the first ballot, and Webster was chairman of 
the committee sent to inform the Secretary of 



A NEW ENGLAND FEDERALIST 131 

State of his election by the House. Writing to Mr. 
Mason a few days after the House had elected Mr. 
Adams, and when the air was full of rumors of 
cabinet appointments, Webster again asserts his 
belief that Adams will be liberal. 

"I took care to state my own views and feelings 
to Mr. Adams, before the election, in such a man- 
ner as will enable me to satisfy my friends, I trust, 
that I did my duty. I was very distinct, and was 
as distinctly answered, and have the means of 
showing precisely what was said. My own hopes 
at present are strong that Mr. Adams will pursue 
an honorable, liberal, magnanimous policy. If he 
does not, I shall be disappointed as well as others, 
and he will be ruined. Opposition is likely to arise 
in an unexpected quarter, and unless the adminis- 
tration has friends, the opposition will overwhelm 
it. ' ' One of the men— -the one New England man— 
to whom rumor assigned a cabinet place, was Web- 
ster; but the report was without foundation. "It 
is not necessary," he wrote to Mr. Mason, "in 
writing to you, to deny the rumor, or rumors, 
which the press has circulated of a place provided 
for me. There is not a particle of probability of 
any such offer." His friends, however, would 
gladly have seen him in some position of more dig- 
nity than a seat in the House; and when the new 
Congress met and the old supporters of Crawford 
declared themselves ready to aid in putting a Fed- 
eralist in the Speaker's chair, Webster was urged 



132 DANIEL WEBSTER 

to become a candidate. ' ' It was not a bad thing, ' ' 
he wrote, "that the friends of Mr. Crawford gen- 
erally supported a Federalist for the Chair. Some 
of my friends thought I might have obtained a 
few votes for the place, but I wholly declined the 
attempt. If practicable to place me there, it would 
not have been prudent." 

The compliment was a great one. From the 
discordant factions which by this time had quite 
destroyed the old Republican party of Jefferson 
two new parties were now about to be formed, the 
one to oppose, the other to support, the adminis- 
tration. Most careful leadership was needed, and 
the tender to Webster of the nomination to the 
speakership was the recognition of him by the 
friends of Adams, Clay, and Crawford as a broad- 
minded and independent member, whose leader- 
ship men of widely different views were willing to 
follow. But again his love of law triumphed over 
his love of politics. To sit, day after day, in the 
Speaker's chair meant the loss of much business 
in the Supreme Court, the profit of which he could 
ill afford to spare, and the performance of a class 
of duties in the highest manner distasteful to him. 
The refusal to accept the speakership left him free 
to do as he pleased, and he became at once an in- 
terested spectator of the course of events. 

The election over and Adams inaugurated, Web- 
ster went home to make ready for an event that 
added new luster to his fame as an orator. Al- 



A NEW ENGLAND FEDERALIST 133 

most fifty years had passed since the memorable 
day in June, 1775, when the British thrice went 
up and thrice fled down the slopes of Bunker Hill. 
More than once during the half-century an attempt 
had been made to mark the spot where Warren 
fell with a monument worthy of the man and of 
his comrades. While the colonies were still nomi- 
nally under the crown, the provisional government 
of Massachusetts gave permission to the lodge of 
Masons over which Warren had presided to re- 
bury his remains, j^rovided "the colony" might 
erect the monument to his memory. After the bat- 
tle of Princeton had added one more to the list of 
martyrs, the Continental Congress ordered that 
two fine monuments should be erected— one at Bos- 
ton to the memory of Warren, and one at Fred- 
ericksburg to commemorate the death of General 
Mercer. Neither was ever built, nor was any 
marker placed till nearly twenty years after the 
battle, when the King Solomon Lodge of Charles- 
town, at its own cost, put up a wooden pillar eigh- 
teen feet high, surmounted by a gilt urn and stand- 
ing on a pedestal ten feet high. Still later, the 
General Court of Massachusetts thought for a 
while of a grand monument of American marble; 
but it was left for the Bunker Hill Monument 
Association, a band of patriotic citizens, to begin 
the work in earnest. By them money was raised, 
a design secured, preparations made to lay the 
corner-stone on the fiftieth anniversary of the 



134 DANIEL WEBSTER 

battle, and Webster chosen orator of the day. He 
was then president of the association, and doubted 
the fitness of delivering the address ; but his scru- 
ples were overcome, and, with the approval of Mr. 
Mason and his brother, he undertook the task. 

The memorable parts of the oration— the mag- 
nificent opening, the address to Lafayette, the share 
in the fight he should assign to Prescott, the fine 
speech to the survivors of the battle, beginning 
"Venerable men!"— gave him much concern and 
were prepared most carefully. On the day this 
latter was composed he had gone with his son 
Fletcher and his man John "Trout" to fish in 
the waters of Mashpee. 

"It was, as he states in his Autobiography, 
while middle deep in this stream [the Mashpee 
River] that Mr. Webster composed a great portion 
of his First Bunker Hill Address. He had taken 
along with him that well-known angler John Deni- 
son, usually called John Trout, and myself. I fol- 
lowed him along the stream, fishing the holes and 
bends he left for me ; but after a while I began to 
notice that he was not so attentive to his sport 
or so earnest as usual. . . . This, of course, 
caused me a good deal of wonder, and, after call- 
ing his attention once or twice to his hook hanging 
on a twig or caught in the long grass of the river, 
and finding that, after a moment's attention, he 
relapsed again into his indifference, I quietly 
walked up near him and watched. He seemed to 



A NEW ENGLAND FEDERALIST 135 

be gazing at the overhanging trees, and presently, 
advancing one foot and extending his right hand, 
he commenced to speak : ' Venerable men ! ' " The 
incident was often alluded to by Webster, and 
years afterward, when preparing a Pourth-of-July 
speech, he wrote to his son: "This morning, after 
breakfast and before Church, that is between half- 
past seven and eleven o'clock, I struck out the 
whole frame and substance of my address for the 
Fourth of July. I propose to write it all out, which 
I can do in three hours, and to read it, and to give 
correct copies at once to the printers. So, if I find 
a trout stream in Virginia, I shall not have to be 
thinking out ' Venerable Men ! Venerable Men ! ' " 

The ceremonies of the day were opened by the 
most imposing procession Boston had yet beheld. 
The militia in their uniforms, the masons in their 
regalia, the long array of societies of every sort 
with badges and banners, the presence in the line 
of two hundred veterans of the Revolution, of 
whom forty had manned the rude earthworks on 
Breed's Hill; the presence of Lafayette, through 
whom, as Webster truly said, the electric spark of 
liberty had been conducted from the New World 
to the Old; the shouting multitude that lined the 
way— all combined to make a scene as yet un- 
equaled. 

Winding its way from the Common across the 
bridge to Charlestown, the procession halted first 
on Breed's Hill, where the corner-stone was laid 



136 DANIEL WEBSTER 

with masonic ceremonies, and then went on to the 
north side, where, in the presence of as great a mul- 
titude as had ever gathered before an orator, Web- 
ster delivered his First Bunker Hill Address. He 
stood on a platform at the foot of the hill. Before 
him, seated on the hillside as if in a great amphi- 
theater, or standing on the summit in a dense mass, 
was his audience, gathered from all the country 
round about. 

The description of the ends the monument should 
serve, the address to the survivors of the war, the 
apostrophe to Warren, the eulogy of Lafayette, 
were greatly admired at the time. But there was 
one sentence which was more than admired, which 
sank deep into the memories of the people, exactly 
expressed their feelings, fired their patriotism, was 
transmitted from mouth to mouth, was quoted and 
cited again and again, furnished toasts and mot- 
tos for countless occasions, and came in an hour 
of trial to have a meaning far more serious than 
was in the mind of Webster when he said: "Let 
our object be, our country, our whole country, and 
nothing but our country." 

With praises of his oration ringing in his ears, 
Webster set off to visit Niagara, and when Decem- 
ber came was again in his old place in the House 
of Representatives. The times were full of interest. 
At last the "Virginia dynasty" was overthrown, 
and for the first time in four-and-twenty years an 
Eastern man was in the palace, "where," Mrs. 



A NEW ENGLAND FEDERALIST 137 

Webster writes to a friend, ' ' things are under much 
better regulation than formerly. There is a little 
of Northern comfort. Instead of shivering in that 
immense cold saloon, we were shown into a good 
warm parlor, with a nice little white damsel to 
take care of our coats. I said there were no 
changes in the appearance of things here; there 
have been several new houses, which ought not to 
be passed over, but the distances are so immense 
they are hardly perceptible. The furniture at the 
palace below-stairs is precisely as it was. I be- 
lieve all the appropriations have been confined to 
the second story. There are many things below 
that want renewing. I wish I could send you an 
inventory of the furniture as it was when Mrs. 
Adams came into possession— it 's a curiosity." 
Nor was Webster less impressed by the change. 
"The drawing-room," says he, "is agreed by all 
to have received great improvement. W nen I went 
there it was absolutely warm, within a very few 
degrees, to a point of comfort. I even saw gentle- 
men walking in the great hall of entrance, with 
apparent impunity, without their greatcoats on!" 
"Mr. Clay appears to get on very well in the dis- 
charge of his duties. I believe the whole diplo- 
matic corps entertain much respect for him, and 
what I have seen of his diplomatic correspondence 
shows great cleverness." "Mr. Adams' mission 
to Panama is opposed in the Senate, and will be 
in the House when the money is asked for. It is 



138 DANIEL WEBSTER 

not unlikely it may be the first measure which shall 
assemble the scattered materials of opposition." 

During the summer of 1825, Mr. Clay had been 
waited on by the ministers of Mexico, Colombia, 
and Guatemala, who, in the name of their coun- 
tries, invited the United States to send commission- 
ers to a congress of republics at Panama. After 
some inquiry as to the subjects to be discussed, 
Adams accepted, and in the annual message an- 
nounced that "ministers will be commissioned to 
attend," and soon laid before the Senate the names 
of the three gentlemen he wished to serve. When 
the members of that body heard the words "will 
be commissioned, ' ' the anger of all those who hated 
Adams flamed high. He had violated the constitu- 
tional right of the Senate. Without consulting it 
as to the fitness of such a mission, without placing 
before it one of the reasons which prompted him 
to such an act, he had decided the question and 
given the Senate merely the duty of confirming his 
appointments. This was a high-handed affront 
not to be endured, and when the Committee on 
Foreign Relations reported a resolution that it was 
"not expedient" "to send any minister to the con- 
gress of American nations assembled at Panama," 
the attack on the President opened in earnest. As 
a question in constitutional government it inter- 
ested Webster deeply, and he made up his mind, if 
the question reached the House, to "make a short 
speech, for certain reasons, provided I can get out 



A NEW ENGLAND FEDERALIST 139 

of court, and provided better reflection should not 
change my purpose," and gave his reasons to Mr. 
Mason. 

"It happened, luckily enough, that the House of 
Representatives were occupied on no very interest- 
ing subjects during my engagements elsewhere. 
You see Panama in so many shapes that you prob- 
ably expect to receive no news in regard to it. The 
importance of the matter arises mainly from the 
dead-set made against it in the Senate. I am 
afraid my friend Calhoun organized and arranged 
the opposition. He expected to defeat the measure. 
That would have placed the President in his power 
more or less, and if the thing could be repeated on 
one or two other occasions, completely so. Mr. 
Adams then would have been obliged to make 
terms, or he could not get on with the Government, 
and those terms would have been the dismissal of 
Mr. Clay. As far as to this point all parties and 
parts of the opposition adhere and cohere. Be- 
yond this, probably, they could not move together 
harmoniously. Vast pains were taken, especially 
with new members, to bring them to a right way 
of thinking. Your neighbor was soon gained. 

"At the present moment, some who acted a vio- 
lent part in the Senate wish to have it understood 
that they are not, therefore, to be counted as mem- 
bers of a regular opposition. I have been informed 
that Mr. Woodbury and Mr. Holmes disclaim op- 
position. Others, again, say they had not full in- 



140 DANIEL WEBSTER 

formation, and complain of that. Others make 
quotations of sentences, words, or syllables from 
the documents and carp at them. But you see all. 
In H. R. [House of Representatives] it is likely 
the necessary money will be voted by 30 or 40 ma- 
jority—we may have a week's debate. 

"The real truth is, Mr. Adams will be opposed 
by all the Atlantic States south of Maryland. So 
would any other Northern man. They will never 
acquiesce in the administration of any President 
on our side the Potomac. This may be relied on, 
and we ought to be aware of it. The perpetual 
claim which is kept up on the subject of negro 
slavery has its objects. It is to keep the South all 
united and all jealous of the North. The North- 
western States and Kentucky are at present very 
well disposed; so is Louisiana. Tennessee and 
Alabama will agree to anything, or oppose any- 
thing, as General Jackson's interest may require. 
The Crawford men in Georgia will doubtless go in 
the same direction. In North Carolina there are 
some who prefer Mr. Adams to General Jackson, 
and in Virginia it may be doubted whether the gen- 
eral can be effectually supported. Virginia says 
little about the men whom she would trust, but op- 
poses those actually in power. In our house, how- 
ever, the Virginia phalanx of opposition is not for- 
midable; more than a third, in number, may be 
reckoned favorable. There is some reason to think 
the Jackson fever begins to abate in Pennsylvania, 



A NEW ENGLAND FEDERALIST 141 

and doubtless it is over in New Jersey. Under 
these circumstances, if New York and New Eng- 
land go steady, it is not likely that the South will 
immediately regain the ascendancy." 

A month later the long-promised speech was de- 
livered, the action of the President defended, and 
the place of the executive in our system of gov- 
ernment carefully explained. For the moment it 
seemed as if Webster was henceforth to be con- 
sidered a supporter of the administration, and the 
mouthpiece of the President in the House. But such 
he was not to be. The duties of a representative 
had never been attractive. Quite as much of his 
time when in Washington had been given to cases 
in the Supreme Court as to the work in the House. 
He was famous as an orator and great as a lawyer, 
but men whose names have been long since forgot- 
ten surpassed him as congressmen. When, there- 
fore, Mr. Rufus King resigned the British mission 
early in 1826, Webster eagerly sought the post, 
and in his usual way turned to Mr. Mason for 
advice. 

"It seems to me," was the answer, "that you 
cannot, under existing circumstances, assert your 
claim at the present time. Should the government 
offer you the appointment, I think you ought not 
to refuse it. But, if I mistake not, it will be 
thought you cannot at this time be spared from the 
House of Representatives. And as far as I under- 
stand the state of that body, I am inclined to think 



142 DANIEL WEBSTER 

your presence there at the ensuing session very 
important. ' ' 

But the advice need never have been asked ; the 
ink and the postage were wasted : for Adams never 
for one moment thought seriously of appointing 
Webster to any office, and he went home at the 
close of the session to be renominated and reelected 
as the representative of the Boston district in the 
Twentieth Congress. 

When Webster came again to Washington his 
reputation as an orator had been further increased 
by his ' ' Discourse in Commemoration of the Lives 
and Services of John Adams and Thomas Jeffer- 
son. ' ' The parts these two men had played in the 
founding of the republic had indeed been great 
and signal. Both had been members of the Con- 
tinental Congress, and of the committee appointed 
to frame the Declaration of Independence. The 
one had written that famous document, the other 
had been its foremost defender, and both had 
signed it. Both had represented our country at 
foreign courts, each had been a leader of a great 
political party, and each had been raised first to 
the Vice-Presidency and then to the Presidency 
of the United States. Their deaths at any time 
would have been events of much public concern; 
but their deaths on the same day, and that day the 
fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the Declara- 
tion of Independence, deeply impressed their coun- 
trymen as one of the remarkable coincidences in 



A NEW ENGLAND FEDERALIST 143 

history. Commemoration services were held in 
many places, and for that at Boston the city coun- 
cil chose August 2, the fiftieth anniversaiy of the 
day on which the engrossed copy of the Declara- 
tion was laid upon the table of Congress to be 
signed, and invited Webster to deliver the oration. 

A speech by such a man on such an occasion 
should have been delivered in the largest hall the 
city contained, or, in the open, from a platform on 
the Common. But the city fathers selected Fan- 
euil Hall, draped it in black, packed the stage and 
floor with seats and settees, and when the proces- 
sion had entered and the last seat was occupied 
shut the doors in the faces of the crowd without. 
Sure that there must be room within the hall, the 
people on the street first began to murmur, and then 
to shout and call, till Webster, coming to the edge 
of the platform, said, in a voice heard above the 
din: "Let those doors be opened!" He was 
obeyed, a rush followed, every inch of standing- 
room was quickly taken, and quiet restored. 

The oration was much admired, and two passages 
in particular— the description of eloquence, and 
the imaginary debate between Adams and the op- 
ponent of independence— were thought unrivaled. 
Joseph Hopkinson assured Webster that the argu- 
ment against the Declaration seemed to him much 
stronger than that in support of it. "This," said 
he, ' ' confirms an opinion I have long held, that as 
things then stood, and putting the result out of the 



144 DANIEL WEBSTER 

case, the strength of all human reasoning was with 
those who opposed the measure, although every 
elevated and noble feeling was in favor of it." 
"There were parts," Richard Rush wrote, on re- 
ceiving his pamphlet copy of the oration, "that 
thrilled me. I read them to my family, and they 
thrilled them too. The speech beginning on page 
38 made my hair rise. It wears the character of a 
startling historical discovery, that burst upon us 
at this extraordinary moment, after sleeping half 
a century. Curiosity, admiration, the very blood, 
all are set on fire by it. Nothing in Livy ever moved 
me so much. Certainly your attempt to pass the 
doors of that most august sanctuary, the Congress 
of '76, and become a listener and reporter of its 
immortal debates, was extremely bold, extremely 
hazardous. Nothing but success could have justi- 
fied it, and you have succeeded." In time the 
speech, put into the mouth of Adams, found its 
way into school readers and speakers; was de- 
claimed by three generations of young orators ; was 
thought by many to have really been delivered in 
Congress, and twenty years after the day Webster 
moved his audience by the delivery of it in Faneuil 
Hall, letters still came to him asking if it was not 
genuine. Later still, when a member of Fillmore 's 
cabinet, Webster was asked by the President what 
authority he had for putting the speech into the 
mouth of John Adams, when it was well known 
that the Continental Congress always sat behind 



A NEW ENGLAND FEDERALIST 145 

closed doors. Webster answered that, save the 
character of the man and a letter to Mrs. Adams, 
he had none, and added, "I will tell you what is 
not generally known: I wrote that speech one 
morning, before breakfast, in my library, and when 
it was finished my paper was wet with my tears. ' ' 



CHAPTER VII 

THE ENCOUNTER WITH HAYNE 

THE return of winter brought Webster back to 
Washington to enter on what proved to be his 
last months of service in the House of Representa- 
tives. On March 4, 1827, the term of Senator Mills 
of Massachusetts would end, and the health of 
that gentleman being far from good, it was certain 
that he would not be returned to the Senate. 
Against this Webster protested ; but when the Gen- 
eral Court met, the State Senate chose Levi Lin- 
coln and sent his name to the House. Before that 
body could act, Mr. Lincoln positively refused to 
serve; so the election went over to the June ses- 
sion of 1827, when Webster was chosen by a large 
majority, and took his seat the following Decem- 
ber. But he came to the capital a broken and dis- 
heartened man ; for Mrs. Webster, who had accom- 
panied him as far as New York, was unable to go 
farther, and died there in January, 1828. A long 
period of despondency followed. For months he 
could do nothing. To one friend he writes in 
his misery: "I find myself again in the court 
where I have been so many winters, and sur- 
rounded by such men and things as I have usually 

146 



THE ENCOUNTER WITH HAYNE 147 

found here. But I feel very little zeal or spirit in 
regard to passing affairs. My most strong pro- 
pensity is to sit down and sit still; and if I could 
have my wish, I think the writing of a letter would 
be the greatest effort I should put forth for the 
residue of the winter." To another friend he de- 
clares: "I do not expect to find myself involved 
in a great pressure of affairs, and certainly shall 
do nothing that I am not absolutely obliged to do." 

Out of this depressed and morbid state Webster 
was now lifted by the appearance in the Senate 
of the bill which laid the duties ever since known 
as the " tariff of abominations." The law of 1824, 
designed to protect the growers of wool and the 
makers of cloth, had failed signally, and had 
scarcely been two years upon the statute-book when 
the men in whose interests the tariff was laid were 
clamoring for its repeal. The wool-growers of 
Berkshire, the manufacturers of New England, the 
State of Massachusetts, whose delegation did not 
cast one vote for the tariff act of 1824, now sent 
long memorials to Congress. A committee repre- 
senting the factory-owners appeared in Washing- 
ton to lobby for the bill, and in January, 1827, such 
a bill as they wanted passed the House and was 
laid on the table of the Senate by the casting-vote 
of Calhoun. Both senators from Massachusetts, 
now become a tariff State, voted for the bill. 

The closeness of the struggle was ominous, and 
each side, aroused and thoroughly in earnest, made 



148 DANIEL WEBSTER 

ready for a renewal of the contest when Congress 
should meet again. Excited by the speeches of 
Robert Y. Hayne, James Hamilton, and Dr. 
Thomas Cooper, the people of South Carolina be- 
gan "to calculate the value of our union," to ask 
"Is it worth our while to continue this union of 
States, where the North demands to be our mas- 
ter?" and filled their memorials with language of 
no uncertain kind, which North Carolina, Georgia, 
and Alabama more than reechoed. 

In the North a convention of Friends of Do- 
mestic Manufactures was held at Harrisburg, Penn- 
sylvania, and a new tariff, based on its labors, was 
laid before the House of Representatives in 1828 
—a tariff so hateful in its rates that its opponents 
were confident it would not pass. Indeed, it was 
carefully prepared to invite defeat, for a Presi- 
dential election was close at hand, and the friends 
of Jackson did not dare to go before the country 
as its executioners. In the first place, all duties 
were made high in order to please the protection- 
ists of the Middle States and to keep them in the 
Jackson party. In the second place, whatever raw 
material New England used was heavily taxed. In 
the third place, it was agreed that Jackson men 
from both North and South should unite, prevent 
amendment, and force a vote on the bill with all 
its obnoxious duties. But when the yeas and nays 
were called on the passage of the bill, the Jackson 
men from the Southern States were to turn about 



THE ENCOUNTER WITH HAYNE 149 

and vote nay, and as it was believed that the men 
from New England would be forced to do likewise, 
the bill would be lost. As the Jackson men from 
the Northern States were to answer yea, the odium 
of defeat would rest on the supporters of Adams, 
and the followers of the Hero of New Orleans 
would appear as the advocates of the American 
system. 

Unhappily, the plan failed; the House passed 
the bill, and threw the responsibility of rejection 
on the Senate. 

In the debate which now followed, Webster did 
not intend to take part. He had just taken his seat 
as a new member ; only a few weeks before he had 
come from the grave of his wife, and, crushed and 
heartbroken, felt "very little zeal or spirit in re- 
gard to passing affairs." But, as the discussion 
went on, and he heard senator after senator assail 
New England, and charge her with measures she 
had steadily resisted till resistance was vain; as 
he heard a senator from North Carolina speak of 
that State as ' l chained to the car of Eastern manu- 
facturers," and describe "this new system" as 
"peculiar to aristocrats and monarchists"; as he 
heard Benton of Missouri assert that, as New Eng- 
land had originated all the tariff bills, she ought 
not now to complain of the burden they had laid on 
her commerce; as he heard Hayne of South Caro- 
lina declare that "in this business the interests of 
the South have been sacrificed, shamefully sacri- 






150 DANIEL WEBSTER 

ficed, her feelings disregarded, her wishes slighted, 
her honest pride insulted"; as he heard him pro- 
claim that ' ' this svstem has created discordant feel- 
ings, strife, jealousy, and heart-burnings, which 
never ought to exist between the different sections 
of the same country. ' ' Webster saw that the hour 
had come to depart from his intention to be silent. 
Rising in his place, he said: "I have not had the 
slightest wish to discuss this measure, not believ- 
ing that, in the present state of things, any good 
could be done by me in that way ; but the frequent 
declarations that this was altogether a New Eng- 
land measure, a bill for securing a monopoly to the 
capitalists of the North, and other expressions of 
a similar nature, have induced me to say a few 
words." 

Such being his reasons, he denied that New Eng- 
land had ever been a leader in protection. He de- 
clared that from the adoption of the Constitution 
till 1824 she had held back and had held others 
back, because she believed that it was best that 
manufactures should make haste slowly; because 
she felt reluctant to build great interests on the 
foundation of government patronage; and because 
she could not tell how long that patronage would 
last, or with what sturdiness, skill, or perseverance 
it would continue to be granted. But the tariff of 
1824 had settled the policy of the government, and 
nothing was left to New England but to conform 
herself to the will of others; nothing but to 



THE ENCOUNTER WITH HAYNE 151 

consider that the government had fixed and deter- 
mined its policy, and that its policy was protec- 
tion. A vast increase of investments in manufac- 
tures had followed, and New England had fitted 
her pursuits and her industry to the new condition. 
Neither the principle on which the bill was founded, 
nor the provisions which it contained, received his 
approval; but the welfare of New England as a 
whole was to be considered, and in the end he voted 
for its passage. Just as the question was about to 
be put, Hayne made a solemn protest against the 
bill as a partial, unjust, and unconstitutional meas- 
ure, and Webster answered him; but what he said 
was not reported. 

As the news of the passage of the bill and the 
approval of the President spread over the country, 
it was received with mingled feelings of approba- 
tion and disgust. In Massachusetts the vote of 
Webster for the tariff was bitterly denounced and 
as warmly defended. He seemed to have lost 
ground, so his friends determined to give him a 
great public dinner and afford him a chance to 
explain his change of position. Faneuil Hall was 
accordingly secured, and on the 5th of June, 1828, 
he received his first public ovation. "On no 
former occasion of festivity," says the Boston 
"Chronicle," "has the old Cradle of Liberty been 
so beautifully and splendidly decorated as it is to- 
day in honor of the Guest whom the people of this 
city delight to honor. The pillars are tastefully 



152 DANIEL WEBSTER 

embellished with evergreens, and the display of 
national flags is rich and variegated. From the 
center of the roof are suspended a number of flags 
of various colors, which come down in festoons, the 
ends hidden under the green foliage which winds 
the posts. The end fronting the door is orna- 
mented (in addition to the two pictures of Wash- 
ington and Faneuil) with a bust of John Adams, 
encircled with a wreath of flowers, under an arch, 
on the pillars of which are the names of our prin- 
cipal military and naval heroes. The arch is sur- 
rounded with the inscription, 'Our country, our 
whole country, and nothing but our country. ' Over 
the doors are placed a ship, a plow, and a shearing- 
machine, indicating commerce, agriculture, and 
manufactures. On all sides of the Hall are ban- 
ners belonging to the various societies and military 
companies of the city." 

The toasts, in the good old fashion of the time, 
were thirteen in number, and when the second was 
reached, and the toast-master read, "Our distin- 
guished guest— worthy the noblest homage which 
freemen can give, or a freeman receive, the homage 
of their hearts," the five hundred gentlemen gath- 
ered round the tables rose and gave forth shouts 
of welcome that were heard in the streets. The re- 
sponse of Webster was an explanation of his vote 
for the tariff and for the bill in aid of the soldiers 
of the Revolution. It was a defense of his posi- 
tion on internal improvements at federal expense, 



THE ENCOUNTER WITH HAYNE 155 

a condemnation of the political methods of the 
Jackson party, and a scornful reply to all who hated 
New England. The burden of the speech was, ' ' Be 
not narrow-minded. ' ' "I was not at liberty, ' ' said 
he, "to look exclusively to the interests of the dis- 
trict in which I live, and which I have heretofore 
had the high honor of representing. I was to ex- 
tend my views from Barnstable to Berkshire, to 
comprehend in it a proper regard for all interests, 
and a proper respect for all opinions. " " It is my 
opinion, Mr. President, that the present govern- 
ment cannot be maintained but by administering 
it on principles as wide and broad as the country 
over which it extends. I mean, of course, no ex- 
tension of the powers which it confers ; but I speak 
of the spirit with which those powers should be 
exercised. If there be any doubt whether so many 
republics, covering so great a portion of the globe, 
can be long held together under this Constitution, 
there is no doubt, in my judgment, of the impossi- 
bility of so holding them together by any narrow, 
contracted, local, or selfish system of legislation. 
To render the Constitution perpetual (which God 
grant it may be), it is necessary that its benefits 
should be practically felt by all parts of the coun- 
try and all interests in the country. The East and 
the West, the North and the South, must all see 
their own welfare protected and advanced by it." 
While Webster in the summer of 1828 was warn- 
ing his friends that the Union could not be pre- 



156 DANIEL WEBSTER 

served by a ''narrow, contracted, local, or selfish 
system of legislation," the people of South Caro- 
lina, declaring the tariff to be just such a system, 
were hurrying on toward nullification and the dis- 
ruption that Webster feared. AVhen news of the 
passage of the bill reached that State, the flags on 
the shipping in Charleston harbor were put at half- 
mast ; a great anti-tariff meeting was held, and ad- 
dresses were made to the people of the State. The 
governor was urged to assemble the legislature at 
once; the press, with one voice, called on the peo- 
ple not to wear or use a ' ' tariffed article, ' ' and not 
to buy a horse, a mule, a hog, or a flitch of bacon, 
a drop of whisky, or a rjiece of bagging from Ken- 
tucky; the Fourth-of-July toasts and speeches 
abounded in sentiments of sedition; and when the 
legislature met in the winter it adopted the "South 
Carolina Exposition of 1828," in which the doc- 
trine of nullification was well and clearly stated 
by John C. Calhoun, and sent to Congress a memo- 
rial against the tariff. Beyond this the State legis- 
lature was not then ready to go; but the Exposi- 
tion, in pamphlet form, was scattered over the 
South in the spring of 1829, and found its way in 
considerable numbers to the North. At last the 
State-Rights party had a platform drawn by the 
hand of a master and setting forth its principles 
boldly in unmistakable terms; and had its cham- 
pions in Congress, and its supporters in every State 
below the Potomac and the Ohio rivers. 



THE ENCOUNTER WITH HAYNE 157 

But where were the champions and the leaders 
of the national party? Who was to frame a plat- 
form, state principles, and expound the Constitu- 
tion for those whose motto was, "Our country, 
our whole country, and nothing but our coun- 
try"? That Webster had seriously meditated the 
assumption of this task must not be doubted. 
For thirty years the theme of all his speeches 
had been love of country, devotion to the Union, 
the grandeur and meaning of the Constitution. 
He had preached it to the people of Hanover 
while a college lad, to the people of Fryeburg while 
a teacher in their school, to the "Federal Gentle- 
men of Concord" while a struggling lawyer yet 
unknown to fame, and had embodied it in the Ports- 
mouth oration in 1812. He had expounded the 
Constitution in his Brentwood address, in his first 
set speech in Congress, in the Dartmouth College 
case, in the case of Gibbons against Ogden, and in 
the oration on Bunker Hill; and in the eulogy on 
Adams and Jefferson in glowing terms he had be- 
sought his countrymen to guard, preserve, and cher- 
ish evermore the "glorious liberty," the "benign 
institutions," of "our own dear native land." 
That he should now behold unmoved the growing 
sentiment of disunion in the South, that he should 
read with indifference the "Exposition of 1828," 
is most unlikely. That he resolved to combat the 
doctrine of nullification when the next occasion 
offered, and that he prepared himself carefully, is 



158 DANIEL WEBSTER 

far more in accordance with his habits and his rec- 
ord. Certain it is that when the time came for an 
answer to the Exposition he was not unprepared 
to make it. 

The first Congress during the administration of 
Jackson assembled on December 7, 1829, and for 
three weeks the Senate did little more than receive 
petitions and dispose of motions of inquiry. Not 
one of these motions provoked debate till, on De- 
cember 29, Senator Foot of Connecticut offered his 
resolution, which reads: " Resolved, That the Com- 
mittee on Public Lands be instructed to inquire 
into the expediency of limiting, for a period, the 
sales of public lands to such lands only as have 
heretofore been offered for sale and are subject to 
entry at the minimum price. And also, whether 
the office of Surveyor-General may not be abol- 
ished without detriment to the public interest." 
Scarcely had the clerk finished reading when Ben- 
ton of Missouri was on his feet to demand the ob- 
ject which the mover had in view, and brought on 
a debate which ended in postponing consideration 
for a few days. When the resolution was at length 
taken up, a general discussion followed, and on 
the 18th of January, 1830, Benton delivered a great 
speech. During the debate a few days before he 
had taken occasion to denounce the resolution as 
an attempt to check immigration to the West; to 
declare it another outbreak of that hatred of the 
East for the West manifested over and over again 



THE ENCOUNTER WITH HAYNE 159 

in the course of the last f our-and-f orty years ; and 
had declared that it was time "to face about and 
fight a decisive battle in behalf of the West. ' ' His 
speech was intended to open the conflict, and the 
charges of Eastern hostility were now fully stated. 
To shut the emigrant out of the West and attempt 
to keep the magnificent valley of the Mississippi 
a haunt for wild beasts and savage men, instead 
of making it the home of liberty and civilization, 
was an injury to the people of the Northeast and 
to the oppressed of all states and nations. To 
force poor people in the Northeast to work as jour- 
neymen in the manufactories, instead of letting 
them go to new countries, acquire land, and become 
independent freeholders, was a horrid and cruel 
policy. The manufacturers wanted poor people to 
do their work for small wages. These poor people 
wished to go West, get land, have their own flocks 
and herds, orchards and gardens, meadows and 
dairies, cribs and barns. How to hinder it, how 
to prevent their straying off in this manner, was 
the present question. The late Secretary of the 
Treasury could find no better way than by protec- 
tion to domestic manufactures— a most complex 
scheme of injustice, which taxed the South in order 
to injure the W T est and pauperize the poor of the 
North. That was bad enough, but it was lame, 
weak, and impotent compared with the scheme now 
on the table of the Senate— a scheme which pro- 
posed to stop the further survey of land, limit the 



160 DANIEL WEBSTER 

sales to the refuse of innumerable pickings, and 
break the magnet which was drawing the people of 
the Northeast to the blooming regions of the West. 
Mr. Benton then went on to specify six "great and 
signal attempts to prevent the settlement of the 
West," and ended by saying that the hope of the 
West lay not in itself, but "in that solid phalanx 
of the South and those scattering reinforcements 
in the Northeast" which, in times past, "had saved 
the infant West from being strangled in its birth." 

The debate had now become exciting, and in the 
course of the next day Mr. Hayne of South Caro- 
lina took part. He reviewed the land policy of 
England, France, and Spain in colonial times, 
praised its liberality, denounced the meanness of 
the United States, and drew a dismal picture of 
the way our government stripped the settler on the 
public lands of all his money, and then spent it, not 
in the betterment of the West, but in the East, and 
so entailed on the hardy frontiersman, for years to 
come, universal poverty, lack of money, paper 
banks, relief laws, and all the evils, social, political, 
and moral, such a system was sure to produce. 

"But, sir," he exclaimed, "there is another pur- 
pose to which it has been supposed the public lands 
can be applied, still more objectionable. I mean 
that suggested in a report from the Treasury De- 
partment under the late administration, of so regu- 
lating the disposition of the public lands as to 
create and preserve in certain quarters of the Union 



THE ENCOUNTER WITH HAYNE 161 

a population suitable for conducting great manu- 
facturing establishments. . . . Sir, it is bad 
enough that government should presume to regu- 
late the industry of man ; it is sufficiently monstrous 
that they should attempt, by arbitrary legislation, 
artificially to adjust and balance the various pur- 
suits of society, and to organize the whole labor 
and capital of the country. But what shall we say 
of the resort to such means for these purposes"? 
What! create a manufactory of paupers, in order 
to enable the rich proprietors of woolen- and cot- 
ton-factories to amass wealth % From the bottom of 
my soul do I abhor and detest the idea that the 
powers of the federal government should ever be 
prostituted for such purposes." 

While Benton was making his attack on the East, 
Webster was not present in the Senate, and as no 
newspaper published speeches the day after they 
were made, Webster neither heard nor knew what 
Benton said. But he did hear Hayne, and took 
notes of the speech, and on the following day made 
what is known as his first reply to Hayne. Noth- 
ing, said he, was further from "my intention than 
to take any part in the discussion of this resolu- 
tion, . . . yet opinions were expressed yester- 
day on the general subject of the public lands, and 
on some other subjects, by the gentleman from 
South Carolina, so widely different from my own 
that I am not willing to let the occasion pass with- 
out some reply. In the first place, the gentleman 



162 DANIEL WEBSTER 

from South Carolina has spoken of the whole 
course and policy of the government toward those 
who have purchased and settled the public lands 
as wrong. He held it to have been from the first 
harsh and rigorous. He was of the opinion that 
the United States had acted toward those who sub- 
dued the Western wilderness in the spirit of a step- 
mother; that the public domain had been improp- 
erly regarded as a source of revenue ; that we had 
rigidly compelled payment for that which ought to 
have been given away. 

' ' Now, sir, I deny altogether that there has been 
anything harsh or severe in the policy of the gov- 
ernment toward the new States in the West. The 
government has been no stepmother to the new 
States. She has not been careless of their inter- 
ests, nor deaf to their requests; but from the first 
moments when the Territories which now form 
these States were ceded to the Union down to the 
time in which I am now speaking, it has been the 
invariable object of the government to dispose of 
the soil according to the spirit of the obligations 
under which it was acquired, to hasten its settle- 
ment, and to rear the new communities into equal 
and independent States. From the very origin of 
the government these Western lands and the just 
protection of the settlers have been the leading ob- 
ject of our policy. The Indian titles have been 
extinguished at the expense of many millions. Is 
that nothing? These colonists, if we are to call 



THE ENCOUNTER WITH HAYNE 163 

them so, in passing the Alleghany did not pass be- 
yond the care and protection of their own govern- 
ment. Wherever they went, the public arm was 
still stretched over them. Are the sufferings 
and misfortunes under Harmer and St. Clair not 
worthy to be remembered \ Do the occurrences con- 
nected with military efforts show an unfeeling neg- 
lect of Western interests!" 

Webster next passed in review the four sources 
of the public lands— the cessions by the States to 
the old Congress, the compact with Georgia in 1802, 
the purchase of Louisiana in 1803, and the pur- 
chase of Florida in 1819 ; stated at length the con- 
ditions of the cessions by the States; proved that, 
bound by these conditions, Congress could not give 
away the lands ; and passed to another observation 
of Hayne's which "did not a little surprise" him. 

The gentleman from South Carolina was anxious 
to get rid of the lands because the permanent reve- 
nue derived from them tended to corrupt the peo- 
ple and to consolidate the government. ' ' Consoli- 
dation," said Webster in reply— "that perpetual 
cry both of terror and delusion— consolidation! 
When gentlemen speak of the effects of a common 
fund belonging to all the States as having a ten- 
dency to consolidate the government, what do they 
mean? Do they mean, or can they mean, anything 
more than that the union of the States will be 
strengthened by whatever furnishes inducements 
to the people of the States to hold together? This 



164 DANIEL WEBSTER 

is the sense in which the framers of the Constitu- 
tion use the word consolidation. This, sir, is Gen- 
eral Washington's consolidation. This is the true 
constitutional consolidation. I wish to see no new 
powers drawn to the general government; but I 
confess I rejoice in whatever tends to strengthen 
the bond that unites us and encourages the hope 
that our Union may be perpetual. I know that 
there are some persons in the part of the country 
from which the honorable member comes who 
habitually speak of the Union in terms of indiffer- 
ence, or even of disparagement. They significantly 
declare that it is time to calculate the value of the 
Union. 1 The Union to be preserved while it suits 
local and temporary purposes to preserve it, and 
to be sundered whenever it shall be found to thwart 
such purposes. Union of itself is considered by 
the disciples of this school as hardly a good. It is 
only regarded as a possible means of good, or, on 
the other hand, as a possible means of evil. I deem 
far otherwise of the Union of the States, and so 
did the framers of the Constitution. What they 
said, I believe— fully and sincerely believe— that the 
Union of the States is essential for the prosperity 

1 At a meeting at Columbia in the summer of 1827, Thomas 
Cooper, president of the South Carolina College, said in a speech : 
"I have said that we shall, ere long, be compelled to calculate the 
value of our Union, and to inquire of what use to us is this most un- 
equal alliance by which the South has always been the loser and the 
North always the gainer. Is it worth while to continue this Union of 
States when the North demands to be our masters and we are re- 
quired to be their tributaries ? " 



THE ENCOUNTER WITH HAYNE 165 

and safety of the States. I am a Unionist. I would 
strengthen the ties that hold us together. Far in- 
deed in my wishes, very far distant, be the day 
when our associated and fraternal stripes shall be 
severed asunder, and when that happy constella- 
tion under which we have risen to so much renown 
shall be broken up and be seen sinking, star after 
star, into obscurity and night ! ' ' 

Webster now came "to that part of the gentle- 
man's speech which has been the main occasion of 
my addressing the Senate. The East! the obnox- 
ious, the rebuked, the always reproached East! 
We have come in, sir, on this debate, for even more 
than a common share of accusation and attack. If 
the honorable member from South Carolina was 
not our original accuser, he has yet recited the in- 
dictment against us with the air and tone of a pub- 
lic prosecutor. He has summoned us to plead on 
our arraignment, and he tells us we are charged 
with the crime of a narrow and selfish policy, of 
endeavoring to restrain emigration to the West, 
and, having that object in view, of maintaining a 
steady opposition to Western measures and West- 
ern interests. And the cause of this selfish policy 
the gentleman finds in the tariff. . . . Sir, I 
rise to defend the East. I rise to repel both the 
charge itself and the cause assigned for it. I deny 
that the East has at any time shown an illiberal 
policy toward the West. I pronounce the whole 
accusation to be without the least foundation. 



166 DANIEL WEBSTER 

. . . I deny it in general, and I deny each and 
all its particulars. I deny the sum total, and I 
deny the details. I deny that the East has ever 
manifested hostility to the West, and I deny that 
she has adopted any policy that would naturally 
lead her in such a course. But the tariff ! the tariff ! 
Sir, I beg to say, in regard to the East, that the 
original policy of the tariff is not hers, whether it 
be wise or unwise. New England is not its author. 
It was literally forced upon her, and this shows 
how groundless, how void of all probability, any 
charge must be which imputes to her hostility to 
the growth of the Western States as naturally flow- 
ing from a cherished policy of her own." 

Having delivered this point-blank and vigorous 
denial, Webster went on to cite the many benefits 
the East had conferred on the West— the excellent 
land system, the ordinance of 1787 which made free 
soil of the Northwest Territory, the Cumberland 
Road, the Portland Canal— and closed by moving 
an indefinite postponement of Mr. Foot's reso- 
lution. 

But scarcely was he seated when Benton rose 
and began a reply. He was still speaking when the 
Senate adjourned for the day. 

As the news of Webster 's speech spread through 
the city, great excitement was manifest. That Web- 
ster, whose coolness and political sagacity were 
proverbial, should deliberately pass over Benton, 
and, singling out Hayne, should answer him, as- 



THE ENCOUNTER WITH HAYNE 167 

tounded the members from the West and the South. 
Among the Southern and Western members of both 
houses, says the New York "Evening Post," the 
sensation produced was so great that on the next 
day, when Hayne was expected to reply, there was 
scarce a quorum in the House of Representatives. 
The Senate gallery was packed, the lobbies were 
choked, and ladies, invading the floor of the Sen- 
ate, took the seats of the senators, till the clerk's 
desk and the Vice-President's chair, it was jokingly 
said, were the only spots they did not occupy. 

In the presence of this eager and expectant mul- 
titude a member rose and asked that the resolution 
be postponed till Monday next, as Webster, who 
wished to be present at the discussion, had engage- 
ments out of the Senate and could not conveniently 
remain. Hayne objected. "I see the gentleman 
from Massachusetts in his seat, and presume he 
could make an arrangement which would enable 
him to be present. I will not deny that some things 
have fallen from the gentleman which rankled here 
[touching his breast], from which I would desire 
at once to relieve myself. The gentleman has dis- 
charged his fire in the face of the Senate. I hope 
he will now afford me the opportunity of returning 
the shot." While Hayne paused for a reply, Web- 
ster rose from his seat and, folding his arms, said, 
with all the dignity he could command: "I am 
ready to receive it. Let the discussion proceed." 
Benton then continued his speech of the day before. 



168 DANIEL WEBSTER 

while Webster left the Senate to obtain the post- 
ponement of his business in court. An hour later 
he returned, whereupon Benton, who was still 
speaking, stopped, and yielded the floor to Hayne, 
who at once began his famous reply. The day was 
then far spent, and as candle-light was drawing 
near, Hayne, after an hour's speech, gave way for 
a motion to adjourn till Monday, the 25th of Janu- 
ary. We are told by those who were in Washington 
at the time that as the report that Hayne was an- 
swering Webster passed from mouth to mouth, 
strangers, citizens, and members of Congress could 
scarcely wait in patience for the three days which 
must pass before the Senate would again assemble ; 
and that, when the Monday so eagerly wished for 
came, the mass of humanity struggling for admis- 
sion to the Senate Chamber surpassed anything ever 
seen before. " Nothing, " says one witness, writ- 
ing on the evening of the memorable day, "could 
exceed the crowd which assembled to-day in the 
Senate to hear the expected speech of Mr. Webster 
in reply to Mr. Hayne ; but Mr. Hayne, keeping all 
the vantage in his power, occupied the ground until 
the hour of adjournment, and all that could be 
heard or seen of Mr. Webster was at the last mo- 
ment, when he rose and claimed and obtained the 
floor for to-morrow. Mr. Hayne spoke fluently, 
warmly, energetically. He, of course, convinced 
all who were politically opposed to Mr. Webster 
(or who, out of envy of the luster of his fame, 



THE ENCOUNTER WITH HAYNE 169 

would willingly see his brightness dimmed) that 
he had obtained a triumph ; and such as heard him 
through, and as may leave the city to-morrow morn- 
ing before Mr. Webster can obtain the floor to 
reply, will doubtless go away with the full convic- 
tion that such is the fact. To-day there was no 
possibility of squeezing into the Senate Chamber 
after the commencement of the discussion, and to- 
morrow, I presume, it will be quite as difficult, for 
I have never witnessed a more intense curiosity 
than that which now prevails to watch every move- 
ment in this political rencounter." 

Hayne began by saying that when he threw out 
his ideas as to the policy of the government in re- 
gard to the public lands he little thought that he 
should be called on to meet such an argument as 
had been made by the senator from Massachusetts. 
The gentleman from Missouri, it was true, had 
charged the Eastern States with an early and con- 
tinued hostility toward the West. But the mem- 
ber from Massachusetts, instead of making up the 
issue with the gentleman from Missouri, had chosen 
him as an adversary, and poured out the vials of 
wrath on his devoted head. Not content with this, 
the Massachusetts senator had gone on to assail 
the South and call in question the principles and 
conduct of South Carolina. Why was this? Had 
the gentleman discovered in former controversies 
with the senator from Missouri that he was over- 
matched? Did he hope for an easy victory over a 



170 DANIEL WEBSTER 

more feeble adversary? Was it his object to 
thrust the member from South Carolina between 
the gentleman from Missouri and himself, in order 
to rescue the East from the contest it had provoked 
with the West? If so, he should not be gratified. 

Passing from what Webster did to what Webster 
said, Hayne charged him with inconsistency, taxed 
him with holding one view as to the public land pol- 
icy in 1825, and a very different one in 1830 ; denied 
that New England had always been friendly to the 
West ; asserted that prior to 1825 she had opposed 
appropriations for internal improvements in the 
West, and declared that the change in feeling was a 
result of the coalition of 1825. Then it was, said 
he, that the "happy union between the members 
of that celebrated coalition was consummated, 
whose immediate issue was the election of a Presi- 
dent from one quarter of the Union, with the suc- 
cession, as it seemed, secured to another. The 
American System, before a rude, disjointed, and 
misshapen mass, now assumed form and consis- 
tency ; then it was that it became the settled policy 
of the government that this system should be so 
administered as to create a reciprocity of interests 
and a reciprocal distribution of government favors : 
East and West, the tariff and internal improve- 
ments, while the South— yes, sir, the impracticable 
South— was to be out of your protection." 

As one of the fruits of the liberal and paternal 
policy of the government toward the West, Webster 



THE ENCOUNTER WITH HAYNE 171 

had cited the history of Ohio ; had drawn a picture 
of her in 1794, when a fresh, untouched, unbounded, 
and magnificent wilderness; and another of her in 
1830, an independent State, with one million of in- 
habitants; and had pointed with pride to the fact 
that in the march of progress slie had left behind 
her a majority of the old States, had taken her 
place beside Virginia and Pennsylvania, and in 
point of numbers would soon admit no equal but 
New York. Later in his speech, Webster touched 
on the beneficent effects of free soil on the growth 
of States and the increase of population north of 
the Ohio, and asked, Had an anti slavery ordinance 
been applied to Kentucky before Boone crossed the 
gap of the Alleghany, would it not have contribu- 
ted to the ultimate growth of that commonwealth! 
Combining these two, Hayne charged him with 
contrasting the weakness of slave-holding States 
with the superior strength of free States, retorted 
with a defense of slavery, made a comparison of 
the happy lot of slaves on the plantations and the 
poor, wretched, vile, and loathsome lot of free ne- 
groes in Northern cities, denied that the South was 
weak, denied that it feared slave uprisings, asserted 
that slave labor had enriched the whole country 
and the North far more than the South, claimed 
that slavery had never yet been injurious to indi- 
vidual or national character, and in evidence cited 
the long roll of sons of the South from Washington 
to Jackson. 

10 



172 DANIEL WEBSTER 

Passing to Webster's remarks on consolidation, 
Hayne reviewed the history of the Federalists and 
the National Republicans, declared they were one 
and the same, and denounced them as men who 
looked on the Constitution as forming not a federal 
but a national union and regarded consolidation as 
no evil. He next fell upon Webster's record on the 
tariff, and then charged him with having crossed 
the border, with having invaded the State of South 
Carolina, with making war on her citizens, and 
with having sought to overthrow her principles and 
her institutions. He then reviewed the history of 
South Carolina and the history of Massachusetts 
from the days of the Revolution to those of the 
Hartford Convention, and, having done this, asked 
who were the friends of the Union? Those who 
would confine the federal government strictly 
within the limits j3rescribed by the Constitution, 
who would preserve to the States and the people 
all powers not expressly delegated, who would make 
this a federal, not a national, union ; or those who 
favored consolidation, who were constantly steal- 
ing power from the States to add strength to the 
federal government, and who undertook to regulate 
the whole industry and capital of the country? 

Hayne now plunged into a defense of the South 
Carolina doctrine of nullification. It was, he said, 
the good old republican doctrine of '98; the doc- 
trine of the Virginia resolutions of '98; of the 
Kentucky resolutions of '98 and '99, and of Mad- 



THE ENCOUNTER WITH HAYNE 173 

ison's report of '99 ; it was the pivot of the political 
revolution of 1800 ; the doctrine of Thomas Jeffer- 
son ; of the Boston memorial of 1809, and of Web- 
ster when he wrote his pamphlet on the embargo 
and delivered a celebrated speech against that 
measure in the House of Representatives. The 
doctrine that the federal government is the exclu- 
sive judge of the extent, as well as the limitations 
of its powers seemed to him utterly subversive of 
the sovereignty and independence of the States. It 
made very little difference whether Congress or the 
Supreme Court were vested with this power. If the 
federal government, in any or all of its depart- 
ments, could fix the limit of its own authority, and 
the States be bound to submit to its decision, then 
were the States reduced to mere corporations and 
the government made one without limitation of 
powers. 

When Hayne finished, the clock in the chamber 
was marking the hour of four, and Webster hav- 
ing obtained the floor for the following day, the 
Senate adjourned. 

Next morning the Senate room was, if possible, 
more crowded than ever, and the murmur which 
swept over it when Webster stood up having died 
away into silence, he turned toward Calhoun, who 
occupied the chair, and said : ' ' Mr. President, when 
the mariner has been tossed for many days in thick 
weather, and on an unknown sea, he naturally 
avails himself of the first pause in the storm, the 



174 DANIEL WEBSTER 

earliest glance of the sun, to take his latitude and 
ascertain how far the elements have driven him 
from his true course. Let us imitate this prudence, 
and, before we float farther on the waves of this de- 
bate, refer to the point from which we departed, 
that we may at least be able to conjecture where 
we are. I ask for the reading of the resolution 
before the Senate." 

The resolution having been read by the secre- 
tary, Webster observed that it was almost the only 
subject about which something had not been said 
by the gentleman from South Carolina in his speech 
running through two days. Every topic in the wide 
range of public affairs, past or present, general 
or local, seemed to have attracted Mr. Hayne's at- 
tention, save only the resolution under debate. To 
the public lands he had not paid even the cold 
respect of a passing glance. Webster then re- 
stated his position as to the use of public lands, 
and refuted the charge of inconsistency; upheld 
the policy of the government in disposing of its 
lands; defended its right to engage in internal 
improvements, and answered Hayne's questions 
when, how, and why New England supported mea- 
sures favorable to the West. He charged Hayne 
with stretching a drag-net over the whole surface 
of political pamphlets, indiscreet sermons, frothy 
paragraphs, and fuming popular addresses; over 
whatever the pulpit in its moments of alarm, the 
press in its heats, and parties in their extrava- 




ROBERT Y. HAYXE. 



THE ENCOUNTER WITH HAYNE 177 

gance had thrown off in times of general excite- 
ment. He declined then, or at any time, to sepa- 
rate this farrago into its parts and answer and 
examine its components, and came at last to the 
' ' grave and important duty ' ' of stating and defend- 
ing what he understood "to be the true principles 
of the Constitution under which we are here as- 
sembled. ' ' 

"I understand the honorable gentleman from 
South Carolina to maintain," said Webster, "that 
it is a right of the State legislature to interfere 
whenever, in their judgment, this government 
transcends its constitutional limits, and to arrest 
the operation of its laws. 

"I understand him to maintain this right as a 
right existing under the Constitution; not as a 
right to overthrow it, on the ground of extreme 
necessity, such as would justify violent revolution. 

"I understand him to maintain an authority on 
the part of the States thus to interfere for the pur- 
pose of correcting the exercise of power by the 
general government, of checking it, and of com- 
pelling it to conform to their opinion of the extent 
of its powers. 

"I understand him to maintain that the ultimate 
power of judging of the constitutional extent of 
its own authority is not lodged exclusively in the 
general government, or any branch of it ; but that, 
on the contrary, the States may lawfully decide for 
themselves, and each State for itself, whether, in 






178 DANIEL WEBSTER 

a given case, the act of the general government 
transcends its power. 

"I understand him to insist that if the exigency 
of the case, in the opinion of any State govern- 
ment, require it, such State government may, by 
its own sovereign authority, annul an act of the 
general government which it deems plainly and 
palpably unconstitutional. ' ' 

This, he said, was the sum of what he understood 
to be the South Carolina doctrine. "I call this 
the South Carolina doctrine only because the gen- 
tleman himself has so denominated it. I do not 
feel at liberty to say that South Carolina, as a 
State, has ever advanced these sentiments. I hope 
she has not, and never may. ' ' But ' ' that there are 
individuals besides the honorable gentleman who 
do maintain these opinions is quite certain. I rec- 
ollect the recent expression of a sentiment which 
circumstances attending its utterance and publica- 
tion justify us in supposing was not unpremedi- 
tated. 'The sovereignty of the State— never to be 
controlled, construed, or decided on but by her own 
feelings of honorable justice.' " 

That the people have an inherent right to resist 
unconstitutional laws without overthrowing their 
government Webster said he did not deny. But 
who should decide on the constitutionality or un- 
constitutionality of laws? This depended on the 
origin of the government and the source of its 
power. " Is it, " said he, ' ' the creature of the State 



THE ENCOUNTEK WITH HAYNE 179 

legislatures or the creature of the people? If the 
agent of the State governments, then they might 
control it, provided they could agree on the man- 
ner. If the United States government were the 
agent of the people, then the people, and the peo- 
ple alone, could control, restrain, modify, reform 
it. According to the gentleman from South Caro- 
lina, it was the creature not only of the States, but 
of each State severally, so that each might assert 
for itself the power to settle whether it acts within 
the limits of its authority. It was the servant of 
four-and-twenty masters, of as many different 
wills and purposes, yet bound to obey all. This 
absurdity arose from a misunderstanding of the 
source of the government. It is, sir," said Web- 
ster, ' ' the people 's government, made for the peo- 
ple, made by the people, and answerable to the peo- 
ple. ... I hold it to be a popular government, 
erected by the people, those who administer it re- 
sponsible to the people, and itself capable of being 
amended and modified just as the people may 
choose it should be. It is as popular, just as truly 
emanating from the people, as the State govern- 
ments. It is created for one purpose, the State 
governments for another. It has its own powers; 
they have theirs. There is no more authority with 
them to arrest the operation of a law of Congress, 
than with Congress to arrest the operation of their 
law. The people erected this government. They 
gave it a Constitution, and in that Constitution 



180 DANIEL WEBSTER 

they have enumerated the powers which they be- 
stow on it. They have made it a limited govern- 
ment. They have denned its authority. But no 
definition can be so clear as to avoid possibility 
of doubt. No limitation can be so precise as to 
elude all uncertainty. Who, then, shall construe 
this grant of the people ! Who interpret their will 
when it may be supposed to be left in doubt % For 
this the people have wisely provided in the Consti- 
tution itself, when they declared that the judicial 
power should extend to all cases arising under the 
Constitution and laws of the United States. The 
very end, the chief design for which the Constitu- 
tion was framed and adopted was to set up a gov- 
ernment that should not be forced to act through 
State agency or depend on State discretion. The 
people had enough of that kind of government 
under the Articles of Confederation. Are we in 
that condition still? Are we yet at the mercy of 
State discretion? 

"Sir, I deny this power of State discretion alto- 
gether. Gentlemen may say that in an extreme case 
a State government might protect the people from 
intolerable oppression. Sir, in such a case the peo- 
ple might protect themselves without the aid of 
State governments. Such a case warrants revolu- 
tion. Talk about it as we will, these doctrines go 
the length of revolution. They lead directly to 
disunion and civil commotion, and therefore it is 
that I enter my public protest against them. 



THE ENCOUNTER WITH HAYNE 181 

"When my eyes shall be turned to behold for 
the last time the sun in heaven, may I not see him 
shining on the broken and dishonored fragments 
of a once glorious union ; on States dissevered, dis- 
cordant, belligerent ; on a land rent with civil feuds, 
or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood! Let 
their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold 
the gorgeous ensign of the republic, now known 
and honored throughout the earth, still full high 
advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their 
original luster, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor 
a single star obscured, bearing for its motto no such 
miserable interrogatory as, 'What is all this 
worth?' nor those other words of delusion and 
folly, 'Liberty first and Union afterward,' but ev- 
erywhere spread all over it in characters of living 
light, blazing on all its ample folds as they float 
over the sea and over the land, and in every wind 
under the whole heavens, that other sentiment dear 
to every true American heart— Liberty and Union, 
now and forever, one and inseparable." 



CHAPTER VIII 

EXPOUNDER OF THE CONSTITUTION 

THE scenes about the Capitol as the debate went 
on can best be described by those who beheld 
them. Says one: "I never saw the Senate Cham- 
ber so completely taken possession of as it has been 
since Monday. Long before the hour of meeting, 
in defiance of a keener northwester than we have 
experienced since last winter, fairy forms were 
seen to glide through the cold avenues of the Cap- 
itol, as eager to obtain a seat favorable for hearing 
the expected effusions of master minds as if much 
more than a moment's gratification were at stake; 
and by the time the Chair had called to order, the 
Chamber was filled to overflow." Says another: 
"Mr. Webster's last speech on Mr. Foot's resolu- 
tion was one of the most splendid oratorical efforts 
we have ever heard. Though General Hayne is as- 
serted by the friends of the present administration 
to possess no ordinary talents, he appeared to a 
painful disadvantage in comparison with Mr. Web- 
ster, whose intellectual power was perhaps never 
so happily exhibited on any former occasion. At 
the close of his last speech there was an involun- 
tary burst of admiration in the galleries. His 

182 



CONSTITUTIONAL EXPOUNDER 183 

eulogy on South Carolina, his panegyric of Dexter, 
and his peroration, were unrivaled. His sarcasm 
was biting; his illustrations happy and lumi- 
nous; his reasoning conclusive and unanswerable. 
Never was an adversary so completely and entirely 
demolished. Every position which General Hayne 
had taken was prostrated, and his very weapons 
were thrown back upon him with a deadly force. 
The Senate seemed to hang upon the lips of the 
orator with intense pleasure, and the audience, nu- 
merous beyond all former example, paid a just 
tribute to his genius and power by the admiration 
which they expressed. ' ' A third assures us : ' ' Busi- 
ness in the House lags, the various speakers ad- 
dressing themselves to almost empty benches since 
Mr. Webster obtained the floor. He concluded his 
speech to-day, and it is universally admitted to 
have been one of the greatest efforts of which the 
human mind is capable. That it will add to the 
reputation of Mr. Webster, high as it now stands, 
no one can doubt. This effort has placed him at 
an unapproachable distance from all competitors. 
Faction and prejudice may try to prop the fame 
of the Bentons, the Haynes, and others, at the ex- 
pense of Mr. Webster; but there is not an intelli- 
gent individual who has listened to this sharp en- 
counter who has not gone from the chamber of 
legislation fully convinced that Mr. Webster is by 
far the greatest man in Congress. You cannot walk 
the streets this afternoon, you cannot enter the 



18-i DANIEL WEBSTER 

door of a mess-room, you cannot approach the fire 
in the bar-room of a hotel, but you hear this lan- 
guage from every mouth, accompanied with ex- 
pressions of regret that Mr. Hayne and Mr. Benton 
should have entered into such an unholy alliance, 
and have made this premature movement for the 
purpose of pulling down the East, and planting 
the South in its room, in the affections of the West- 
ern States. This speech of Mr. Webster has occu- 
pied about six hours in the delivery, and were it 
possible to transfer to paper the manner in which 
it was delivered, to infuse with every report the 
tone of sarcasm, the curl of the lip, the flush of the 
cheek, the flash of the eye, by which the language 
of the orator was frequently enlivened, elucidated, 
and enforced, then, but not till then, could those 
who have had no opportunity of hearing this speech 
be made sensible of the banquet which they have 
lost." 

"Opinions as to the victory in this strife are of 
course as much divided as are the parties, whose 
different views of the Constitution have been sever- 
ally maintained, and by worthy champions. The 
opposition party generally contended that Mr. 
Webster overthrew Mr. Hayne, while, on the other 
hand, the result is triumphantly hailed by the 
friends of the administration as a decisive and 
complete victory over the Eastern Giant. They say 
the Southern orator is more than a match for the 
New England lawyer. Mr. Hayne is truly an ora- 



CONSTITUTIONAL EXPOUNDER 185 

tor full of vehemence, eloquence, and passion, a 
correct and powerful reasoner, with a most vivid 
imagination, graceful in person and action, and 
with a most musical voice. Mr. Webster, on the 
other hand, is a lawyer, and a great lawyer, one 
who has at his immediate command all the logic 
and all the wariness of a cool and practised de- 
bater, of extensive reading and much learning, of 
perfect self-possession and always master of the 
subject, and ready with coolness and circumspec- 
tion to seize upon the weak points of his adver- 
sary. As a speaker, he is calm, collected, and dig- 
nified, sometimes energetic, but never impassioned 
or vehement. His voice is clear and firm. His 
gestures are few, and not always graceful. A ma- 
terial contrast between the two men is in the ex- 
pression and mobility of their features. Mr. Web- 
ster 's countenance is generally cold, severe, and 
impassive, which makes the occasional sarcasm, 
when accompanied by a sneer or a smile, exceed- 
ingly effective. The face of Mr. Hayne is con- 
stantly in motion; every varying emotion is dis- 
tinctly visible. 

"To those who, without being influenced by any 
previous opinions of the comparative i^owers of 
these gentlemen, shall compare this speech with 
that to which it was an answer, its superiority in 
point of oratorical ability will be manifest. The 
management of the argument in relation to the pub- 
lic lands is exceedingly happy. The retort on the 



186 DANIEL WEBSTER 

subject of the tariff is tremendous. The answer 
to Mr. Webster's unprovoked attack on the South 
is managed with great skill." 

The great reply of Webster, in the opinion of 
this critic, was that of a skilful and able debater 
closely pressed by his opponent, but fighting hard. 
"The opening is wanting in dignity. The retort 
on the subject of Mr. Hayne's allusion to Banquo's 
ghost is a good instance of the dexterous use of the 
weapons of logic. The Hartford Convention and 
the course of New England during the embargo 
and the war are not defended at all. The most un- 
fortunate part of the speech is that where Mr. 
Webster attempts to excuse his course on the sub- 
ject of the tariff. The most prudent course for Mr. 
Webster would have been not to break the silence 
on this subject which he had hitherto preserved." 

While comment of this sort was passing from 
newspaper to newspaper over the country, nobody 
save those who crowded the Senate Chamber knew 
what either Hayne or Webster said. A few jour- 
nals of prominence, and with wide circulation for 
those days, maintained at the capital correspon- 
dents whose daily or weekly letters appeared as 
soon as the mail could carry them ; and it was from 
such writers that the country first heard of the 
Webster-Hayne debate. But for the full reports 
of the speeches, the press the country over was de- 
pendent upon the Washington newspapers, and in 
this instance the reports were deliberately held 



CONSTITUTIONAL EXPOUNDER 187 

back for revision. "We do not know," says the 
editor of the Philadelphia "Gazette" of February 
15, "what has become of Mr. Hayne's and Mr. 
Webster's speeches." Not till the 17th of Feb- 
ruary was he able to print a small part of Hayne's 
reply of January 21, with the remark, "We have 
at length received from Washington the first part 
of Mr. Hayne's speech"; and not till February 25, 
just thirty days after it was delivered, did the peo- 
ple of Philadelphia read the opening passage of 
Webster 's second reply to Hayne. In March it was 
printed in the New York ' ' Evening Post, ' ' and the 
month was well advanced before it appeared in 
Boston. 

But Webster 's friends and admirers did not wait 
for the report of the second speech to flood him 
with praise. As the report of his first speech went 
abroad, each mail brought letters full of enthu- 
siasm. "I must beg the favor of you, ' ' says a Bal- 
timore admirer, "to forward me a copy or two of 
your speech by the first mail after it is committed 
to press. I congratulate you most cordially and 
sincerely upon your triumph in the most signal 
manner, not only in the estimation of your friends, 
but of your opponents, who are forced to acknow- 
ledge it. From the date of that speech I shall date 
the rise and successful progress of liberal and en- 
lightened principles in our country. The reign of 
ignorance must be short and the march of intellect 
most certain." 






188 DANIEL WEBSTER 

' ' The glorious effect of your patriotic, able, and 
eloquent defense of New England, ' ' writes another, 
"and the triumphant support you have given to 
the fundamental principles of the Constitution, are 
not confined to the capital of the Union. The 
aroma comes to gladden our hearts, like the spicy 
gales of Arabia to the distant mariner. 

"Never have I heard such universal and ardent 
expressions of joy and approbation. You have as- 
sumed an attitude which the adverse times de- 
manded, and nobly braved the storm that threat- 
ened the destruction of our liberties. The dignity 
and independence of your manner, and the time, 
all were calculated to produce a result auspicious 
to our destinies." 

"I am," says a third, writing from Columbia, 
South Carolina, ' ' a son of New England, and proud 
to claim you as her champion. The friends of Mr. 
Hayne will be very active in circulating his sec- 
ond speech on Foot's resolution, and I am anxious 
to have the antidote to circulate with the bane. 
You would therefore oblige me by sending me your 
rejoinder. Receive my warm acknowledgments 
for your able and manly defense of my country, 
the country of Yankees." 

"The demand for copies of Mr. Webster's 
speech," said the editor of the "National Intelli- 
gencer, ' ' at whose office it was printed in pamphlet 
form, "has been unprecedented. We are just com- 
pleting an edition of twenty thousand copies, which, 



CONSTITUTIONAL EXPOUNDER 189 

added to a former edition, will make an aggregate 
of very nearly forty thousand copies issued from 
this office alone. There have also been printed at 
other places in the United States perhaps twenty 
different editions of these speeches. It is hardly 
too much to say that no speech in the English lan- 
guage was ever so universally diffused or so gen- 
erally read." 

Of the many orations which up to this time had 
been delivered in the Senate of the United States, 
the most far-reaching and enduring was the sec- 
ond reply to Hayne. At last the South Carolina 
doctrine had been fittingly answered; at last the 
Union had found a stanch defender, the Constitu- 
tion a noble interpreter, and the friends of both 
a champion able to give utterance to the thoughts 
and feelings they could not so well express. His 
words sank into their hearts, his speech became a 
mine of political wisdom, and the Constitution 
henceforth had for them a new meaning. 

Nor was the effect on Webster less important. 
He became at once a truly national character, saw 
the Presidency almost within his grasp, and from 
that day forth was animated by a ceaseless long- 
ing to become one of the temporary rulers of his 
country. National politics,— nay, even local polit- 
ical affairs,— the conduct of his possible competi- 
tors, his own course on the issues of the day, now 
had for him a weight and moment such as he had 

never accorded them before. His fellow-country- 
11 



190 DANIEL WEBSTER 

men everywhere became eager to hear and see him. 
When Congress rose, a public dinner was tendered 
by his Boston admirers, and declined. A publisher, 
without his consent, announced a collection of his 
speeches. An admirer in Boston sent him a silver 
pitcher as a testimony of gratitude "for your ser- 
vices to the country, in your late efforts in the 
Senate, especially for your vindication of the char- 
acter of Massachusetts and of New England." 

When, a few months later, he went to New York 
City to try a case before the United States Circuit 
Court he was the lion of the hour. Men, and even 
women, who had never before been near a court 
came by scores, rilled the room, and stood in crowds 
about the door to get a glimpse of him. Later yet, 
when the autumn election was about to be held in 
Massachusetts, and it was announced that Webster 
would address the electors in Faneuil Hall, men 
came from Salem, Worcester, and many parts of 
the State to hear him. So great was the crowd that 
the doors were forced in long before the hour of 
meeting. It was Saturday night, and after he had 
spoken for three hours the meeting was adjourned 
to Sunday evening, when he again addressed an 
immense gathering in Center Hall, over the New 
Market. In the course of this two-day speech, 
Webster, while condemning Jackson's veto of the 
Maysville Road Bill, said: "I know no road that 
the administration would call national. All roads 
are in some degree local. They run over a par- 



CONSTITUTIONAL EXPOUNDER 191 

ticular territory and connect particular districts. 
No road runs everywhere except, except—" 
Here, says the report, Mr. Webster had wound 
himself up in a sentence from which he was appar- 
ently unable to extricate himself— "except— " 
"The road to ruin," said Mr. Otis. "Except the 
road to ruin," said Webster, "and this is an ad- 
ministration road," and the hall rang with ap- 
plause. 

As Webster's countrymen began to realize more 
and more that South Carolina was really in ear- 
nest; that a great political issue had been raised 
that was not easily to be put down ; that the Con- 
stitution and the Union were really at stake; and 
that his reply to Hayne was something more than 
a fine speech defending New England, their eager- 
ness to hear him on this issue grew apace, and 
invitations to speak came to him from many quar- 
ters. That from New York was accepted, and in 
March, 1831, at a public dinner over which Chan- 
cellor Kent presided, Webster again argued against 
nullification, and again maintained that the final 
arbiter was the Supreme Court. ' ' The general and 
State governments, both established by the peo- 
ple, are established for different purposes and with 
different powers. Between those powers questions 
may arise, and who shall decide them! Some pro- 
vision for this end is absolutely necessary. Where 
shall it be? This was the question before the con- 
vention, and various schemes were suggested. It 






192 DANIEL WEBSTER 

was foreseen that the State might inadvertently 
pass laws inconsistent with the Constitution of the 
United States or with acts of Congress. How 
should these laws be disposed of? Where shall the 
power of judging, in cases of alleged interference, 
be lodged! One suggestion in the convention was 
to make it an executive power, and to lodge it in 
the hands of the President, by requiring all State 
laws to be submitted to him, that he might nega- 
tive such as he thought appeared repugnant to the 
general Constitution. ... It was not pressed. 
It was thought wiser and safer, on the whole, to 
require State legislatures and State judges to take 
an oath to support the Constitution of the United 
States, and then leave the States at liberty to pass 
whatever laws they pleased; and if interference, 
in point of fact, should arise, to refer the question 
to judicial decision. To this end, the judicial power 
under the Constitution of the United States was 
made coextensive with the legislative power. It 
was extendi to all cases arising under the Con- 
stitution and the laws of Congress. The judiciary 
became thus possessed of the authority of deciding, 
in the last resort, in all cases of alleged interfer- 
ence between the State laws and the Constitution 
and laws of Congress. . . . 

"On the occasion which has given rise to this 
meeting, the proposition contended for in opposi- 
tion to the doctrine just stated was that every State, 
under certain supposed exigencies and in certain 



CONSTITUTIONAL EXPOUNDER 193 

supposed cases, might decide for itself and act for 
itself, and oppose its own force to the execution 
of the laws. By what argument, do you imagine, 
gentlemen, was such a proposition maintained! 
. . . As I understand it, when put forth in its 
revised and most authentic shape, it is this: that 
the Constitution provides that any amendments 
may be made to it which shall be agreed to by three 
fourths of the States ; there is, therefore, to be noth- 
ing in the Constitution to which three fourths of 
the States have not agreed. All this is true; but 
then comes this inference, namely, that when one 
State denies the constitutionality of any law of 
Congress, she may arrest its execution as to her- 
self, and keep it arrested, till the States can be con- 
sulted by their conventions and three fourths of 
them shall have decided that the law is constitu- 
tional. Indeed, the inference is still stronger than 
this; for State conventions have no authority to 
construe the Constitution, though they have au- 
thority to amend it, therefore the argument must 
prove, if it prove anything, that when any one 
State denies that any particular power is included 
in the Constitution, it is to be considered as not 
included, and cannot be found there till three 
fourths of the States agree to insert it. . . . 

"Seeing the true grounds of the Constitution 
thus attacked, I raised my voice in its favor, I must 
confess with no preparation or previous intention. 
I can hardly say that I embarked in the contest 






194 DANIEL WEBSTER 

from a sense of duty. It was an instantaneous im- 
pulse of inclination, not acting against duty, I trust, 
but hardly waiting for its suggestion. . . . 
Gentlemen, I have true pleasure in saying that I 
trust the crisis has in some measure passed by. 
The doctrine of nullification has received a severe 
and stern rebuke from public opinion." 

The rebuke, unhappily, went unheeded ; the crisis 
had in no sense passed away, for the spirit of nul- 
lification rose higher and higher with each suc- 
ceeding month. State Eights and Free Trade as- 
sociations were formed over all South Carolina; a 
great celebration was held by the State Rights and 
Free Trade party at Charleston on the Fourth of 
July, 1831 ; and a convention at Columbia just be- 
fore Congress met in December, and a convention 
of delegates from the State Rights and Free Trade 
associations at Charleston on Washington's Birth- 
day, 1832. The meaning of these demonstrations 
was not misunderstood. Congress made haste to 
offer concessions, and in July, 1832, passed an act 
altering and amending the tariff law of 1828— the 
"tariff of abominations." But it was far from 
what South Carolina demanded ; it was still a tariff 
for protection, and in October her legislature called 
a convention which, it was understood, would nul- 
lify the tariff laws. Meanwhile Calhoun once more 
came forward to explain the right and duty of the 
State to take such action. In the course of the pre- 
vious summer he had written and published in a 



CONSTITUTIONAL EXPOUNDER 195 

newspaper an "Address to the People of South 
Carolina," in which the doctrine of State Rights 
and the relation of the States to the federal gov- 
ernment was reargued. Governor Hamilton had 
never read a word of the address, though it had 
been before the people for over a year; but now, 
when some excuse must be found for another paper 
by the Vice-President, the Governor found time 
to read it through, and wrote to urge its author to 
state his doctrine with more detail. Calhoun con- 
sented, and the letter was at once made public. 

The moment Webster read it he determined to 
reply, and as the Vice-President had put his argu- 
ment in the form of a letter to the Governor of 
South Carolina, a leading nullifier, Webster de- 
cided to put his argument in the form of a letter 
to Chancellor Kent, a great expounder of the Con- 
stitution. "Mr. Calhoun, as you are doubtless 
aware," he wrote the chancellor, "has published a 
labored defense of nullification in the form of a 
letter to Governor Hamilton. It is far the ablest 
and most plausible, and therefore the most dan- 
gerous, vindication of that particular form of revo- 
lution which has yet appeared. In the silence of 
abler pens, and seeing, as I think I do, that the 
affairs of this government are rapidly approach- 
ing a crisis, I have felt it to be my duty to answer 
Mr. Calhoun; and as he adopted the form of a 
letter in which he put forth his opinions, I think 
of giving my answer a similar form. The object 



196 DANIEL WEBSTER 

of this is to ask your permission to address my 
letter to you. I propose to feign that I have re- 
ceived a letter from you calling my attention to 
Mr. Calhoun's publication, and then, in answer to 
such supposed letter, to proceed to review his whole 
argument at some length, not in the style of a 
speech, but in that of cool, constitutional, and legal 
discussion. If you feel no repugnance to be thus 
written to, I will be obliged to you for your assent. ' ' 

The chancellor readily assented. "I shall deem 
it an honor," said he, "to be addressed by you 
while engaged in the investigation of such an in- 
teresting subject. . . . The crisis is indeed 
portentous and frightful. We are threatened with 
destruction all around us, and we seem to be fast 
losing our original good sense and virtue. . . . 
If we are to be saved, we shall be largely indebted 
to you." To write the letter at once was not pos- 
sible. "I cannot," said Webster, "complete the 
paper before the election. ' ' 

But there was one other man whose opinion on 
the question of nullification was much more impor- 
tant just then than was the opinion of Calhoun, 
and that man was the President. Suppose South 
Carolina were to carry out her threat and actually 
nullify the tariff acts, would the President execute 
those laws? Would he have the duties collected 
at the port of Charleston? Webster was inclined 
to think he might not. In a recent veto message 
Jackson had said: "Each public officer who takes 



CONSTITUTIONAL EXPOUNDER 197 

an oath to support the Constitution swears that 
he will support it as he understands it, and not as 
it is understood by others." Taking this for a 
text, Webster told the National Republicans assem- 
bled in convention at Worcester in October, 1832, 
that ''the general adoption of the sentiments ex- 
pressed in this sentence would dissolve our govern- 
ment. It would raise every man 's private opinions 
into a standard for his own conduct. . . . Mr. 
President, how is it possible that a sentiment so 
wild and so dangerous, so encouraging to all who 
feel a desire to oppose the laws and to impair the 
Constitution, should have been uttered by the 
President of the United States at this eventful and 
critical moment? Are we not threatened with dis- 
solution of the Union? Are we not told that the 
laws of the government shall be openly and di- 
rectly resisted? Is not the country looking with 
the utmost anxiety to what may be the result of 
these threatened courses? . . . Mr. President, 
I have very little regard for the law or the logic of 
nullification. But there is not an individual in its 
ranks capable of putting two ideas together who, 
if you will grant him the principles of the veto 
message, cannot defend all that nullification has 
ever threatened. 

' ' To make this assertion good, sir, let us see how 
the case stands. The legislature of South Caro- 
lina, it is said, will nullify the late revenue or tariff 
law because they say it is not warranted by the 



198 DANIEL WEBSTER 

Constitution of the United States as they under- 
stand the Constitution. They, as well as the Presi- 
dent of the United States, have sworn to support 
the Constitution. Both he and they have taken the 
same oath in the same words. Now, sir, since he 
claims the right to interpret the Constitution as he 
jDleases, how can he deny the same right to them? 
. . . How can he answer them when they tell 
him that the revenue laws are unconstitutional as 
they understand the Constitution, and that, there- 
fore, they will nullify them? . . . Sir, the 
President of the United States is of opinion that an 
individual called on to execute a law may himself 
judge of its constitutional validity. Does nullifica- 
tion teach anything more revolutionary than that? 
The President is of opinion that judicial interpre- 
tations of the Constitution and the laws do not bind 
the consciences and ought not to bind the conduct 
of men. Is nullification at all more disorganizing 
than that? The President is of opinion that every 
officer is bound to support the Constitution only 
according to what ought to be, in his private opin- 
ion, its construction. Has nullification, in its wild- 
est flight, ever reached to an extravagance like that? 
No, sir, never. . . . But let me ask, sir, what 
evidence there is that the President is himself op- 
posed to the doctrines of nullification— I do not 
say to the political party which now pushes these 
doctrines, but to the doctrines themselves. Has he 
anywhere rebuked them? Has he anywhere dis- 



CONSTITUTIONAL EXPOUNDER 199 

couraged them! Has his influence been exerted to 
inspire respect for the Constitution, and to produce 
obedience to laws ? . . . Alas, sir, we have seen 
nothing, nothing of all this. . . . Now, sir, 
I think it exceedingly probable that the President 
may come to an open rupture with that portion of 
his original party which now constitutes what is 
called the Nullification party. I think it likely he 
will oppose the proceedings of that party if they 
shall adopt measures coming directly in conflict 
with the laws of the United States. But how will 
he oppose? . . . How will the President at- 
tempt to put down nullification, if he shall attempt 
it at all! We are told, sir, that the President will 
immediately employ the military force, and at once 
blockade Charleston. . . . For one, sir, I raise 
my voice beforehand against the unauthorized em- 
ployment of military power, and against supersed- 
ing the authority of the laws by an armed force, 
under pretense of putting down nullification. The 
President has no authority to blockade Charleston ; 
the President has no authority to employ military 
force till he shall be duly required so to do by 
law and by the civil authorities. His duty is to 
cause the laws to be executed. His duty is to sup- 
port the civil authority." 

The one way to put down nullification, Webster 
believed, was to defeat the reelection of Jackson, 
"and place the government in the hands of its 
friends." But Jackson was not defeated, and on 



200 DANIEL WEBSTER 

him lay the burden of dealing with practical, not 
theoretical, nullification. The legislature of South 
Carolina called a State convention ; the convention 
declared that the tariff acts of 182S and 1832 were 
null and void, and fixed the 1st of February, 1833, 
as the day on and after which they should no 
longer be "binding on this State, its officers or 
citizens. ' ' The legislature then made all prepara- 
tions necessary to put nullification into effect, 
and what had so often been threatened, so manv 
times discussed, and so little really feared seemed 
certain to happen at the end of January. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE ENCOUNTER WITH CALHOUN 

SOUTH Carolina having done her part, it was 
now for the federal government to make the 
next move, and the Executive, with characteristic 
energy, moved quickly. The annual message in 
December, 1832, contained but one short para- 
graph on affairs in South Carolina, and the tone 
of what was said was hailed by the milliners as con- 
ciliatory to them, and as a sure indication that the 
President had no thought of using force. Adams 
described it as going "to dissolve the Union into 
its original elements"; as "a complete surrender 
to the milliners of South Carolina." Clay called 
it ' ' ultra on the side of State Rights. ' ' But ere a 
week went by the President followed up the mes- 
sage with a proclamation which astonished both 
friends and foes alike, and left neither his opin- 
ions nor his intentions any longer in doubt. ' ' The 
Constitution of the United States," said Jackson 
to the followers of Hayne and Calhoun, "forms 
a government, not a league; and whether it be 
formed by compact between the States or in any 
other manner, its character is the same. . . . 
I consider the power to annul a law of the United 

201 



202 DANIEL WEBSTER 

States incompatible with the existence of the 
Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the 
Constitution, and destructive of the great object 
for which it was formed. To say that any State 
may at pleasure secede from the Union is to say 
that the United States are not a nation." Lan- 
guage of this sort contained the very essence of 
the reply to Hayne, and the moment Webster read 
it he determined to uphold any vigorous measure 
Jackson might propose. When the proclamation 
reached Boston, a great meeting to denounce nul- 
lification was about to be held in Faneuil Hall, 
and to the men so gathered Webster consented to 
speak on the subject of the proclamation. "Hav- 
ing been detained at home a few days after the 
meeting of Congress," said he, "by the necessity 
of attending to some private affairs, I have been 
induced to delay my departure for another day, 
that I might be present at this meeting of my fel- 
low-citizens. ... I regard the issuing of this 
proclamation by the President as a highly im- 
portant occurrence. . . . Mr. Chairman, the 
general principles of the proclamation are such as 
I entirely approve. I esteem them to be the true 
principles of the Constitution. It must now be 
apparent to every man that this doctrine of nulli- 
fication means resistance to the laws, by force. 
It is but another name for civil war. The Presi- 
dent has declared that in meeting the exigencies of 
this crisis it is his determination to execute the 



THE ENCOUNTER WITH CALHOUN 203 

Jaws, to preserve the Union by all constitutional 
means, to arrest, if possible, by moderate but fair 
measures, the necessity of a recourse to force. 
. . . In all this I most cordially concur," and 
"in this way of meeting the crisis I shall give 
the President my entire and cordial support. 
. . . Our only alternative is to preserve the 
Union one and entire, as it now is, or else to break 
up and return to the condition of separate States, 
with the unpromising chance of forming here- 
after new, partial, sectional, rival, perhaps hostile 
governments, thus bidding adieu forever, not only 
to the glorious idea, but to the glorious reality of 
the United States of America." 

In South Carolina the proclamation was received 
with indignation and contempt by the people and 
the press, was answered, at the request of the 
legislature, by Hayne (now governor in place of 
Hamilton), by the election of Calhoun to the 
United States Senate in place of Hayne, and by 
the passage of such acts as were necessary to put 
nullification into effect. The proclamation had 
fallen on deaf ears, and no hope of a peaceable set- 
tlement remaining, Jackson, about the middle of 
January, 1833, asked for authority to collect the 
revenue in South Carolina by force if necessary — 
a request to which the Senate responded with the 
Revenue Collection Bill— the "Force Act" or 
"Bloody Bill," as the milliners called it. In the 
opinions of the State Rights men, this bill was the 



204 DANIEL WEBSTER 

worst that had ever been reported by a committee 
to the Senate. It struck down the States, made a 
dictator of the President, and repealed the Con- 
stitution, the true meaning of which Calhoun now 
explained in three resolutions. The people of the 
several States composing these United States, so 
read the first resolution, are united as parties to 
a constitutional compact, to which each State ac- 
ceded as a separate sovereign community, and the 
union of which the compact is the bond is a union 
between the States that have ratified it. 

The second declared that the people of the sev- 
eral States in thus creating a general government 
delegated to it certain definite powers, reserving, 
each State to itself, the residuary mass of powers ; 
that whenever the general government assumes 
the exercise of powers not delegated by the com- 
pact, its acts are of no effect; and that, as in all 
other cases of compact without any common judge, 
each has the right to judge for itself as well of the 
infraction as of the mode and measure of redress. 

The third aimed directly at the proclamation, 
declared that the people of the United States did 
not form a nation, that the States had not surren- 
dered their sovereignty, that the citizens of the 
States had not transferred their allegiance to the 
general government, and that all assertions to the 
contrary were without foundation in truth and con- 
trary to the most certain historical facts and the 
clearest deductions of reason. 



THE ENCOUNTER WITH CALHOUN 205 

The resolutions having been printed and then 
laid on the table, debate on the ' ' Bloody Bill ' ' was 
resumed. As the discussion went on day after day 
for two weeks, the fact became clear that even the 
steadfast friends of the President could not be 
relied on to support the measure. They opposed 
it bitterly,— nay, denounced it, as Webster said, 
"with the same vehemence as they used to do when 
they raised their patriotic voices against what they 
called a 'coalition.' " It smelled, they declared, 
like the Alien and Sedition laws, was as bad as the 
Boston Port Bill, brought back the horrors of the 
Jersey prison-ships, made the President sole judge 
of the Constitution, sacrificed everything to arbi- 
trary power, and was worse than the Botany Bay 
Law of Great Britain. The party of Jackson, in 
short, was in revolt, and the President at this crisis 
turned to Webster for support. Members of Con- 
gress urged him to defend the bill, and when he 
seemed indifferent, one of the cabinet called at his 
lodgings and asked for his help. To this appeal 
he complied, and a few days later, in the Senate, 
took occasion to say that he would support the 
measure as an independent member "discharging 
the dictates of his own conscience. " "I am, ' ' said 
he, ' ' no man 's leader ; and, on the other hand, I fol- 
low no lead but that of public duty and the star 
of the Constitution. I believe the country is in 
considerable danger; I believe an unlawful combi- 
nation threatens the integrity of the Union. . . . 

12 



206 DANIEL WEBSTER 

I think the people of the United States demand of 
us, who are intrusted with the government, to main- 
tain that government. . . . For one, I obey 
this public voice ; I comply with this demand of the 
people. I support the administration in measures 
which I believe to be necessary ; and while pursu- 
ing this course I look unhesitatingly, and with the 
utmost confidence, for the approbation of the 
countrv. ' ' 

This alliance of Webster with the Jackson party 
was of serious importance. It was now certain 
that in the struggle over the Force Bill he would 
bear a part ; and, with the recollection of the debate 
with Hayne fresh in memory, the followers of Cal- 
houn looked forward to the contest with uneasiness. 
No other man in the Senate, save Clay, then ap- 
proached Webster in influence with the people; 
and to Clay Calhoun now turned for assistance, 
which the great Kentuckian proved only too will- 
ing to give. He would not speak for the bill; he 
would not vote for it ; he would not do anything to 
strengthen the hands or add to the prestige of the 
man who believed in the coalition, who had pro- 
scribed the friends of ' ' Harry of the West, ' ' and 
had defeated him so overwhelmingly in the elec- 
tion just passed. But, worse than all, the father of 
the American System, the great apostle of protec- 
tion, would yield to South Carolina, and had in his 
desk the draft of a bill designed to abandon the 
protective system, yield every point South Caro- 



THE ENCOUNTER WITH CALHOUN 209 

lina demanded, and reduce the tariff to a revenue 
basis. This bill Clay introduced soon after his in- 
terview with Calhoun. 

With Clay thus silenced and committed to the 
course of the nullifiers, but two of the great tri- 
umvirate remained to contend, the one for "our 
country, our whole country, and nothing but our 
country ' ' ; the other for nullification, secession, and 
disunion. Calhoun opened the contest, and Web- 
ster followed with the speech known in his collected 
works as ' ' The Constitution not a Compact between 
the States." 

We are told that as Webster was about to leave 
his lodgings to make that speech, the carriage of 
the President drew up at the door, that the pri- 
vate secretary of Jackson stepped out, delivered a 
message, and then drove the senator to the Capitol 
steps. But how changed the scene from those 
memorable days three years before! No citizens 
streamed with hasty steps from every street and 
avenue. No crowd blocked the entrance, filled 
every aisle and gallery and lined the walls of that 
little chamber associated with so much that is dra- 
matic in our history. Calhoun was to continue his 
speech of the day before, a performance which had 
greatly disappointed his friends. Never at any 
time had he been considered an orator, and long 
absence from legislative halls had dulled what lit- 
tle power as a speaker he once possessed. More 
than fifteen years had rolled by since he accepted 



210 DANIEL WEBSTER 

the place of Secretary of War under Monroe, and 
in all that time Calhoun had addressed no legisla- 
tive body. lie was, says one who now heard him, 
quite unfit for long and sustained effort by reason 
of the intensity of his feelings, a lack of physical 
power, and a weak voice. He was hoarse and in- 
distinct in utterance. Calhoun finished a little be- 
fore one o'clock, and a moment later Webster 
secured the floor, and spoke for two hours and a 
half, when the Senate took a recess till five o'clock. 
Meantime the news that Webster was answering 
Calhoun spread through the city, and when the 
Senate reassembled the chamber was "crowded to 
suffocation." The House had adjourned for the 
day, and the members were now to be seen seated 
among the senators. Citizens eager to hear a great 
speech had hurried to the room with wives and 
daughters, had filled every available inch of space, 
and furnished an audience far different from that 
of two hours before. From five till eight o'clock, 
when the speech ended, Webster spoke with much 
of his old power, carried his listeners with him, and 
when he closed, ' ' a long, loud, and general clapping 
of hands rose from the floor and galleries." The 
cause was greater than any ever before put on trial. 
The preservation of the Union, the success of demo- 
cratic government, the ability of a people spread 
over half a continent to rule themselves, was to be 
decided once and forever. Reject the Force Bill, 
and government by the many was supplanted by 



THE ENCOUNTER WITH CALHOUN 211 

the rule of a few; the Constitution was degraded 
from an instrument of government to the contract 
of a league, and the Republic of the United States 
was no more worthy to be called a nation. Pass 
the Force Bill, and the supremacy of law was up- 
held firmly, nullification was brought down from a 
peaceful remedy to a revolutionary right, and the 
Union made stronger than ever. Webster began 
by saying: "I shall not, Mr. President, follow the 
gentleman step by step through the course of his 
speech. Much of what he has said he has deemed 
necessary to the just explanation of his own po- 
litical character and conduct. On this I shall offer 
no comment. . . . But the gentleman's speech 
made a few days ago, when introducing his resolu- 
tions, those resolutions themselves, and parts of 
his speech just now concluded may probably be 
justly regarded as comprising the whole South 
Carolina doctrine. I shall not consent, sir, to make 
any new Constitution, or to establish another form 
of government. I will not undertake to say what 
a constitution for these United States ought to be. 
That question the people have decided for them- 
selves, and I shall take the instrument as they have 
established it, and shall endeavor to maintain it, in 
its plain sense and meaning, against opinions and 
notions which, in my judgment, threaten its sub- 
version. 

' ' The first two resolutions of the honorable gen- 
tleman affirm these propositions, viz. : 



212 DANIEL WEBSTER 

"1. That the political compact under which we 
live, and under which Congress is now assembled, 
is a compact to which the people of the several 
States, as separate and sovereign communities, are 
the parties. 

"2. That these sovereign parties have a right to 
judge, each for itself, of any alleged violation of 
the Constitution by Congress, and, in case of such 
violation, to choose, each for itself, its own mode 
and measure of redress. 

"It is true, sir, that the honorable member calls 
this a 'constitutional' compact, but still he affirms 
it to be a compact between sovereign States. . . . 
Sir, I must say to the honorable gentleman that in 
our American political grammar ' constitution ' is a 
noun substantive; it imparts a clear and distinct 
idea of itself; and it is not to lose its importance 
and dignity, it is not to be turned into a poor, am- 
biguous, senseless, unmeaning adjective for the 
purpose of accommodating any new set of political 
notions. Sir, we reject his new rules of syntax alto- 
gether. We will not give up our forms of political 
speech to the grammarians of the school of nulli- 
fication. By the Constitution we mean not a 'con- 
stitutional compact,' but simply and directly the 
Constitution, the fundamental law; and if there 
be one word in the English language which the 
people of the United States understand, this is that 
word. . . . We know what the Constitution is, 
we know what the plainly written fundamental law 



THE ENCOUNTER WITH CALHOUN 213 

is, we know what the bond of our union and the 
security of our liberty is, and we mean to main- 
tain and defend it in its plain sense and unsophisti- 
cated meaning. . . . 

1 1 The first resolution declares that the people of 
the several States ' acceded' to the Constitution, or 
to the constitutional compact, as it is called. This 
word ' accede, ' not found either in the Constitution 
itself or in the ratification of it by any one of the 
States, has been chosen for use here doubtless not 
without a well-considered purpose. 

"The natural converse of accession is secession, 
and therefore when it is stated that the people of 
the States acceded to the Union, it may be more 
plausibly argued that they may secede from it. 
If, in adopting the Constitution, nothing was done 
but acceding to a compact, nothing would seem 
necessary, in order to break it up, but to secede 
from the same compact. But the term is wholly 
out of place. . . . The people of the United 
States have used no such form of expression in 
establishing the present government. They do not 
say they accede to a league, but they declare they 
ordain and establish a Constitution. Such are the 
very words of the instrument itself; and in all the 
States, without an exception, the language used by 
their conventions was that they 'ratified the Con- 
stitution.' . . . Sir, I intend to hold the gen- 
tleman to the written record. In the discussion of 
a constitutional question I intend to impose upon 



214 DANIEL WEBSTER 

him the restraints of constitutional language. The 
people have ordained a Constitution; can they re- 
ject it without revolution? They have estab- 
lished a form of government; can they overthrow 
it without revolution? These are the true ques- 
tions. . . . 

"The gentleman's resolutions, then, affirm in 
effect that these twenty-four United States are held 
together only by a subsisting treaty, resting for 
its fulfilment and continuance on no inherent power 
of its own, but on the plighted faith of each State. 
. . . If, sir, this be our political condition, it is 
time the people of the United States understood 
it. Let us look for a moment to the practical con- 
sequences of these opinions. One State, holding 
an embargo law unconstitutional, may declare her 
opinion and withdraw from the Union. She secedes. 
Another, forming and expressing the same judg- 
ment on a law laying duties on imports, may with- 
draw also. She secedes. . . . But, sir, a third 
State is of opinion not only that these laws of im- 
post are constitutional, but that it is the absolute 
duty of Congress to pass and maintain such laws, 
and that by omitting to pass and maintain them 
its constitutional obligations would be grossly dis- 
regarded, . . . and for this violation of the Con- 
stitution she may threaten to secede also. Virginia 
may secede and hold the fortresses in the Chesa- 
peake. The Western States may secede, and take to 
their own use the public lands. Louisiana may se- 



THE ENCOUNTER WITH CALHOUN 215 

cede if she chooses, form a foreign alliance, and 
hold the mouth of the Mississippi. If one State may 
secede, ten may do so— twenty may do so. Sir, as 
these secessions go on one after another, what is to 
constitute the United States'? Whose will be the 
army? Whose the navy? Who will pay the debts ! 
Who fulfil the public treaties? WTio perform the 
constitutional guarantees? Who govern this Dis- 
trict and the Territories? Who retain the public 
property? . . . This, sir, is practical nullifi- 
cation. 

"And now, sir, against all these theories and 
opinions I maintain: 

"1. That the Constitution of the United States 
is not a league, confederacy, or compact between 
the people of the several States in their sovereign 
capacities, but a government proper, founded on 
the adoption of the people and creating direct re- 
lations between itself and individuals. 

"2. That no State authority has power to dis- 
solve these relations, that nothing can dissolve 
them but revolution, and that consequently there 
can be no such thing as secession without revo- 
lution. 

"3. That there is a supreme law, consisting of 
the Constitution of the United States, acts of Con- 
gress passed in pursuance of it, and treaties; and 
that in cases not capable of assuming the character 
of a suit in law or equity, Congress must judge of 
and finally interpret this supreme law so often as 



216 DANIEL WEBSTER 

it has occasion to pass acts of legislation; and in 
cases capable of assuming, and actually assuming, 
the character of a suit, the Supreme Court of the 
United States is the final interpreter. 

"4. That an attempt by a State to abrogate, 
annul, or nullify an act of Congress, or to arrest 
its operation within her limits, on the ground that, 
in her opinion, such law is unconstitutional, is a 
direct usurpation on the just powers of the general 
government, and on the equal rights of other 
States, a plain violation of the Constitution, and 
a proceeding essentially revolutionary in its char- 
acter and tendency." 

These four propositions having thus been plainly 
stated, Webster plunged into a long and careful 
argument in support of them. The bursts of rhet- 
oric, the sarcasm, the personal allusions, the dra- 
matic episodes which marked his two replies to 
Hayne, were wanting. The speech was such as 
might well have been addressed to the Supreme 
Court, and was without doubt but an elaboration 
of the letter he had intended to address to Chan- 
cellor Kent in reply to the letter of Calhoun to 
Governor Hamilton. That concessions of some 
kind must be made to South Carolina was generally 
admitted in both houses of Congress, and a bill 
to accomplish this end was reported to the House 
at the close of December. The existing tariff was to 
be swept away, duties were to be brought down to 
the rates of the tariff of 1816, and, as the members 



THE ENCOUNTER WITH CALHOUN 217 

of Congress well knew, the bill was an adminis- 
tration measure. But in February, while the 
House was toiling earnestly to come to an agree- 
ment on the bill before the session should close on 
the 4th of March, Clay, to the amazement of his 
friends, brought before the Senate a compromise 
bill of his own. As passed,— for pass it did,— the 
act provided that all existing duties should be re- 
duced to an ad valorem basis ; that such as exceeded 
twenty per cent, should be so reduced that the ex- 
cess should be diminished one tenth on September 
30, 1833, and one tenth on September 30, 1835, 
1837, and 1839; that one half of the remainder 
should be removed on September 30, 1841, and an- 
other half in 1842, when there would thus be estab- 
lished a horizontal tariff of twenty per cent, ad 
valorem on all dutiable goods. The free list was 
much increased, the credit system was abolished, 
all duties were to be paid in cash, and valuation at 
the port of entry was required. Such a bill from 
such a man; such duties from ''the father of the 
American System," the champion of protection, 
took the country by surprise. "Mr. Clay's new 
tariff project," said one advocate of protection, 
"will be received like a crash of thunder in the 
winter season, and some will hardly trust the evi- 
dence of their senses on a first examination of it, 
so radical and sudden is the change of policy pro- 
posed. ' ' 
So astonished was the Senate that the bill was 



218 DANIEL WEBSTER 

not allowed to go to a committee, but was merely 
ordered to be printed. This delay afforded Web- 
ster time to express his dissent in a set of reso- 
lutions. In substance they were that the annual 
revenue of the country ought not to be allowed to 
exceed the needs of the government ; that as soon as 
it was certain that the duties imposed by the tariff 
act of 1832 would yield an excess of revenue they 
ought to be reduced ; that in making this reduction 
it was not wise to proceed by way of an equal re- 
duction per centum on all articles; but that the 
amount as well as the time ought to be fixed in re- 
spect to the several articles distinctly, having due 
regard to the questions how far such reduction 
would affect revenue, how far those domestic man- 
ufactures hitherto protected, and how far the rate 
of wages and the earnings of the American work- 
ingman; that it was unwise and injudicious, in 
laying import dues, to limit all dues to one equal 
rate per centum, and that since all power to protect 
home manufactures by commercial regulations or 
import duties had been taken from the States and 
given to the Congress of the United States, no law 
ought to be passed giving any pledge, express or 
implied, or giving any assurance, direct or indi- 
rect, tending to restrain Congress from at any time 
giving reasonable protection to American industry. 
Having presented his resolutions, Webster ex- 
pressed a wish to say something in their defense, 
but yielded in order that the debate on the Revenue 




WEBSTER S HOUSE IN SUMMER ST., BOSTON. 



THE ENCOUNTER WITH CALHOUN 221 

Collection Bill might be continued. What he said 
later was brief, of little importance, and soon for- 
gotten. But the reply to Calhoun was not forgot- 
ten. It was hailed with delight by every lover of 
the Union, raised Webster still higher in popular 
esteem, and pleased no one so much as Jackson. 
Writing to his friend Poinsett the day after its 
delivery, the President said : ' ' Mr. Webster replied 
to Calhoun yesterday, and, it is said, demolished 
him. It is believed by more than one that Mr. C. 
is in a state of dementation ; his speech was a per- 
fect failure, and Mr. Webster handled him like a 
child." He was thanked by the President person- 
ally, praised by the Secretary of State, and when, 
in the summer of 1833, he set off on a pleasure trip 
to the West, his journey was one long ovation. 
Everywhere he was welcomed as "the champion 
of the Constitution. ' ' That actual nullification by 
a State of an act of Congress should be met firmly 
and, if need be, put down by force was generally 
approved. But it was equally necessary that the 
meaning of the Constitution should be made quite 
plain, that the doctrine of nullification should be 
refuted, that the right to use force should be up- 
held; and this service Webster, in the opinion of 
his countrymen, had rendered in a most signal 
manner. At Utica the citizens forgot political dif- 
ferences in their eagerness to meet him. At Buf- 
falo a public dinner was tendered, an address was 
delivered by the merchants and manufacturers; 



222 DANIEL WEBSTER 

and some months later he received from the me- 
chanics of the town a fine black-walnut table as a 
token of appreciation. He was present at the 
launching of a steamboat bearing his name, and 
went in her to Cleveland, where he turned south- 
ward. 

At Columbus another dinner was declined, but 
at Cincinnati he was forced to accept a like invi- 
tation, and was toasted as "The Daniel of his age 
—He may be cast among lions, as many as you 
please, but even then you will find him the master 
spirit " ; as he ' ' Who yesterday came among a com- 
munity of strangers, and to-morrow leaves a com- 
munity of friends " ; as " The profound expounder 
of the Constitution, the eloquent supporter of the 
Federal Union, and the uniform friend and advo- 
cate of the Western country." More invitations 
to visit the neighboring State now came to him ; but 
he turned eastward, and was dined and toasted at 
Washington and Pittsburg. As he drew near the 
latter town, he was met by the mayor and a body 
of citizens on horseback and escorted to the Ex- 
change Hotel, which, says a contemporary account, 
"has been thronged ever since by crowds of eager 
visitors, without regard to party, anxious to see 
and testify respect to him whom all unite in regard- 
ing as an intellectual giant on whom the Constitu- 
tion itself did not disdain to lean at a moment of 
imminent peril. Agreeable to previous arrange- 
ment, he was waited on by a committee of forty 



THE ENCOUNTER WITH CALHOUN 223 

of our most respectable citizens to welcome him to 
Pittsburg, to proffer facilities for seeing to advan- 
tage whatever he might deem worthy of examina- 
tion, and invite him to a public dinner." This 
being declined, "the idea of a formal dinner was 
abandoned; but as the anxiety seemed intense for 
some collective expression of public admiration, it 
was decided to invite him to meet our citizens at 
the spacious grove of Mr. Miltenberger on Mon- 
day afternoon at four o 'clock. The change of plan 
was judicious, and the scene a truly gratifying 
one. Refreshments of a plain kind were spread 
around, in charge of the committee, but the tables 
could serve only as a nucleus to the vast multi- 
tude. Mr. Webster moved freely about the beauti- 
ful grounds, recognizing his numerous visitors of 
the preceding days, who were led, by the frank 
and engaging cordiality of his manners, to become, 
in turn, the introducers of such as had not before 
enjoyed the pleasure of taking him by the hand." 
The speech on this occasion was another eulogy 
of the Constitution and the Union, another denun- 
ciation of the needlessness and folly of nullifica- 
tion, and a defense of the proclamation and the 
Force Act. The mayor in introducing him, he said, 
had done more than justice to his efforts, but had 
not overstated the occasion on which those efforts 
were made. "Gentlemen, it is but a few short 
months since dark and portentous clouds did hang 
over the heavens, and did shut out, as it were, the 



224 DANIEL WEBSTER 

sun in his glory. A new and perilous crisis was 
upon us. . . . Gentlemen, this was an alarm- 
ing moment. In common with all good citizens, I 
felt it to be such. A general anxiety pervaded the 
breasts of all who were, at home, partaking in 
the prosperity, honor, and happiness which the 
country had enjoyed. And how was it abroad! 
Why, gentlemen, every intelligent friend of hu- 
man liberty, throughout the world, looked with 
amazement at the spectacle which we exhibited. 
In a day of unparalleled prosperity, after a half- 
century's most happy experience of the bless- 
ings of our Union, when we had already become 
the wonder of all the liberal part of the world and 
the envy of the illiberal, when the Constitution 
had so amply falsified the predictions of its ene- 
mies, and more than fulfilled the hopes of its 
friends; in a time of peace, with an overflowing 
treasury; when both the population and the im- 
provement of the country had outrun the most 
sanguine anticipation; it was at this moment that 
we showed ourselves to the whole civilized world 
as being apparently on the eve of disunion and 
anarchy, at the very point of dissolving once and 
forever that Union which had made us so pros- 
perous and so great. It was at this moment that 
those appeared among us who seemed ready to 
break up the national Constitution, and to scatter 
the twenty-four States into twenty-four uncon- 
nected communities. . . . 



THE ENCOUNTER WITH CALHOUN 225 

"Gentlemen, I hope that the result of that ex- 
periment may prove salutary in its consequences 
to our government, and so to the interests of the 
community. I hope that the signal and decisive 
manifestation of public opinion which has, for the 
time at least, put down the despotism of nullifica- • 
tion, may produce permanent good effect. I know 
full well that popular topics may be urged against 
the proclamation. I know that it may be said, in 
regard to the laws of last session, that if such laws 
are to be maintained, Congress may pass what laws 
they please and enforce them. But may it not be 
said, on the other hand, that if a State may nullify 
one law, she may nullify any other law also, and, 
therefore, that the principle strikes at the whole 
power of Congress ? Those who argue against the 
power of Congress, from the possibility of its 
abuse, entirely forget that if the power of State 
interposition be allowed, that power may be abused 
also. What is more material, they forget the will 
of the people as they have plainly expressed it in 
the Constitution. They forget that the people have 
chosen to give Congress a power of legislation in- 
dependent of State control. They forget that the 
Confederation has ceased, and that a Constitution, 
a government, has taken its place." 

At New York a serious effort was made to attach 
him to Jackson. This was not possible, for when 
Congress met the struggle with Jacksonism began, 
and through it all Webster sided with the Whigs. 

13 



CHAPTER X 

A WHIG LEADER 

THE reelection of Jackson in the autumn of 1832 
was construed by him to mean a popular in- 
dorsement of his financial policy, of his hostility 
to the Bank of the United States, and of his veto 
of the bill to renew its charter. In his own words, 
"The bank came into Congress and asked a new 
charter. The object avowed by many of the advo- 
cates of the bank was to put the President to the 
test, that the country might know his final deter- 
mination relative to the bank prior to the ensuing 
election. . . . Can it now be said that the ques- 
tion of a recharter of the bank was not decided 
at the election which ensued? . . . Whatever 
may be the opinion of others, the President con- 
siders his reelection as a decision of the people 
against the bank. . . . He was sustained by 
a just people, and he desires to evince his grati- 
tude by carrying into effect their decision so far 
as it depends on him. ' ' 

The best way to evince this gratitude was, to 
Jackson's mind, to go on with his warfare. And 
now that the charter could not be renewed, the best 
way to carry on the war was to attack the credit 

22G 



A WHIG LEADER 227 

of the bank by removing the government deposits. 
Bent on this, the President assembled his cabinet 
one day in September, announced to it his deter- 
mination, and read a long paper in which were set 
forth his reasons for the act. But the order to 
the receivers of public money to make no more 
deposits in the bank or its branches must be issued 
by the Secretary of the Treasury. The secretary 
was William J. Duane, who stoutly refused to dis- 
turb the deposits, and for this resistance to the will 
of Jackson he was promptly removed, and his office 
bestowed on Roger B. Taney. 

Then the order was given, twenty-three "pet 
banks" were chosen to be the keepers of public 
money, and the whole country was instantly thrown 
into commotion. 

In the Senate, where the enemies of Jackson were 
in the majority, the war against him was waged 
vigorously. First came a resolution calling on the 
President for a copy of the paper said to have been 
read to the cabinet. This was refused, and the right 
of the Senate to ask for the paper was flatly denied. 
Next came the resolutions containing the famous 
censure of Jackson; and while these were under 
consideration, memorials, petitions, resolutions 
poured into Congress by hundreds. No act ever 
done by any President since the days of Washing- 
ton so excited the people. Party feeling was al- 
layed, and Whigs, anti-Masons, and Jackson men 
united in the common shout of condemnation. 



228 DANIEL WEBSTER 

The legislatures of eight States approved, and the 
legislatures of eight denounced the conduct of the 
President. From congressional districts, counties, 
cities, towns, banks, chambers of commerce, boards 
of trade, merchants, traders, farmers, artizans of 
all sorts, came petitions bearing hundreds of sig- 
natures, and picturing the distress caused by the 
ruin of credit and confidence and the disorder of 
the currency. Laborers, it was said, had been 
thrown out of employment, mills and factories 
were closed, buying and selling almost ceased, and 
all because of a needless attack on the business in- 
terests of the people. Some of the petitioners 
prayed for a renewal of the bank charter; others 
for a restoration of the deposits; others upheld 
the President, opposed a new bank, and asked that 
the deposits be not returned. 

Into the struggle thus begun Webster entered 
with an ardor he never before displayed. He gave 
his support and vote to Clay's resolutions of cen- 
sure on the President, wrote the report of the com- 
mittee condemning the reasons of the secretary for 
obeying the order of Jackson, and, before the ses- 
sion closed, attacked the financial policy of the 
administration scores of times in speeches long and 
short, some of which still find a place in his col- 
lected works. That on "A Redeemable Paper 
Currency" and that on "The Natural Hatred of 
the Poor to the Rich" may be read with profit 
to-day. 



A WHIG LEADER 229 

The vote of censure having passed the Senate, 
and having been entered on the "Journal," the 
President prepared a long message and protest, 
which he sent to the Senate in April, 1834, with 
the request that it also might be entered at length 
on the "Journal." Webster was then away on 
leave, but, hearing at Philadelphia that a protest 
had been presented, he started at once for Wash- 
ington. It was Sunday morning when the steam- 
boat reached Baltimore, and "It had been given 
out," says the account, "that they [Webster and 
Mr. Horace Binney] would not come that day, per- 
haps to prevent the gathering of a crowd ; but the 
people by thousands assembled on the wharf. Mr. 
Webster, being called on, made a few animated 
remarks from the boat, with a view of dismissing 
the 'Friends of the Constitution' assembled to 
meet him. But they would not be dismissed. They 
formed into a solid body, filling the whole street, 
and marched up to the City Hotel. When he ar- 
rived at the hotel, hardly less than five thousand 
well-dressed persons, very many of them elderly 
men and of lofty standing in society, were assem- 
bled in front of it, and the gentlemen were succes- 
sively called on to offer a few words of exhortation. 
The people were highly excited, and often cheered, 
but in a subdued tone of voice. ' ' For this Senator 
Forsyth denounced him as having addressed a 
"bawling crowd" on the Sabbath, as having ex- 
cited a "wretched clamor," and as having "de- 



230 DANIEL WEBSTER 

signs to exasperate the people to treasonable acts 
unless they submitted to the power of a great mon- 
eyed corporation." 

The speech which Webster hurried to Washing- 
ton to make against the protest is a careful exami- 
nation of the powers and duties of the Executive, 
and of the powers and duties of the Senate, and a 
fine example of that clearness of statement and of 
argument in which he was unrivaled. 

Activity of this sort added to his renown, brought 
down on him the wrath of the friends of Jackson, 
and greatly increased the admiration felt for him 
by all who about this time began to call themselves 
Whigs. The cartoonists now attacked him as a 
national character. In one of their pictures a foun- 
tain of Congress water has exploded, and as Clay 
and Webster are blown into the air the latter ex- 
claims, "Thus vaulting ambition doth o'erleap it- 
self and falls on t' other side." In another Jack- 
son holds in his hand the order for the removal 
of the deposits. The lightning from the paper is 
demolishing the bank, and Clay, who has fallen 
amid the tottering columns, cries out, "Help me 
up, Webster, or I shall lose my stakes!" To this 
appeal Webster answers as he runs away : " ' There 
is a tide in the affairs of men, ' as Shakspere says. 
Sorry, dear Clay. Look out for yourself. ' ' In yet 
another cartoon "Old Hickory" and "Bully Nick" 
are about to engage in a "set-to," with "Long 
Harry" and "Black Dan" as seconds to the Bully. 



A WHia LEADER 231 

Again, Webster, as a cat mounted on a copy of the 
Constitution placed upon a chair, is worried by the 
dog Benton, standing on the floor. 

During the summer of 1835, business having 
taken Webster to Bangor, he accepted a dinner; 
but so many people wished to hear and see him 
that, when the cloth was removed, he was forced 
to make his speech from the balcony of the hotel. 
Again his theme was the Constitution, which ap- 
peared, he said, to have been formed for two grand 
purposes. "The first is the union of the States. 
It is the bond of that union, and it states and defines 
its terms. . . . For one, I am not sanguine 
enough to believe that if this bond of union were 
dissolved, any other tie uniting all the States would 
take its place for generations to come. It requires 
no common skill, it is no ordinary piece of politi- 
cal journey-work to form a system which shall 
hold together four-and-twenty separate State sov- 
ereignties, the line of whose united territories runs 
down all the parallels of latitude from New Bruns- 
wick to the Gulf of Mexico, and whose connected 
breadth stretches from the sea far beyond the Mis- 
sissippi. Nor are all times or all occasions suited 
to such great operations. . . . Whoever, there- 
fore, undervalues this National Union, whoever 
depreciates it, whoever accustoms us to consider 
how the people might get on without it, appears 
to me to encourage sentiments subversive of the 
foundation of our prosperity. . . . 



232 DANIEL WEBSTER 



t i 



'■ Another object of the Constitution I take to be 
such as is common to all written constitutions of 
free governments— that is, to fix limits to delegated 
authority, or, in other words, to impose constitu- 
tional restraints on political power. . . . It is 
not among the circumstances of the times most 
ominous for good, that a diminished estimate ap- 
pears to be placed on those constitutional securi- 
ties. A disposition is but too prevalent to substi- 
tute personal confidence for legal restraint— to put 
trust in men, rather than in principles. . . . 
Whatever government is not a government of law 
is a despotism, let it be called what it may." 

A few weeks later, when a silver vase was pre- 
sented to "the defender of the Constitution" at 
Boston, Webster spoke more plainly still of this 
change in the Constitution. "I think, then, gen- 
tlemen, that a great practical change is going on 
in the Constitution, which, if not checked, must 
completely alter its whole character. This change 
consists in the diminution of the just powers of 
Congress on the one hand, and in the vast increase 
of executive authority on the other. The govern- 
ment of the United States in the aggregate, or the 
legislative power of Congress, seems fast losing, 
one after another, its accustomed powers. One by 
one they are practically struck out of the Consti- 
tution. What has become of the power of internal 
improvement! Does it remain in the Constitution, 
or is it erased by the repeated exercise of the Presi- 




CAROLINE LEROY, MR. WEBSTER'S SECOND WIFE. 



A WHIG LEADER 235 

dent's veto, and the acquiescence in that exercise of 
all who call themselves his friends, whatever their 
opinions of the Constitution! The power to cre- 
ate a national bank, — . . . is it not true that 
party has agreed to strike this power, too, from the 
Constitution in compliance with what has been 
openly called the interests of party? Nay, more; 
that great power, the power of protecting domestic 
industry, who can tell me whether that power is 
now regarded as in the Constitution or out of it?" 

Webster's name now began to be seriously men- 
tioned as that of the next Whig candidate for the 
Presidency. Indeed, the Whigs in the Massachu- 
setts legislature formally nominated him, and let- 
ters promising support came to him from Vermont, 
New York, Ohio, and Louisiana. His nomination 
was indorsed by the Whigs of Penobscot County, 
Maine, and by his party in Berwyn, Hallowell, and 
Portland. Webster delegates to the Pennsylvania 
State Convention were chosen in the counties of 
Chester and Allegheny, and some questions were 
asked him by the anti-Masonic State Committee. 
But the Whigs agreed on William Henry Harrison 
as the more available man, and nominated him. 

For Webster to remain longer in the field as a 
serious candidate was useless, and when, in March, 
1836, a convention of Whig members of the Massa- 
chusetts legislature and delegates from towns not 
represented by Whigs in the General Court gath- 
ered in Boston, he wrote expressing a desire to 



236 DANIEL WEBSTER 

withdraw. But the convention would not hear of 
such a thing, voted that he was the true Whig can- 
didate, and at the autumn election Massachusetts 
cast her fourteen electoral votes for Daniel Web- 
ster. He received no others, but had no cause for 
regret, for the Whigs were overwhelmingly beaten, 
and Van Buren succeeded Jackson. 

The success of Van Buren was disheartening, 
and for many reasons Webster now thought se- 
riously of retiring from the Senate. While a mem- 
ber of the House and but one in a State delegation 
of twelve, he had found it an easy matter to carry 
on a lucrative practice in the Supreme Court. The 
interests of his State were then safe in the care of 
many colleagues. But as a senator he was one of 
two, and duty to his country and to his State left 
little time for practice, and his income went down 
rapidly. The fight with nullification in 1833 cut 
down his professional gains by eight thousand dol- 
lars, and never since had his earnings approached 
what they might have been. A longing for a great 
Western farm had seized him, and he had already 
acquired a little tract not far from Springfield, 
Ohio, which he named Salisbury, after the old home 
of his father. This he hoped to enlarge. He would 
make it a tract of a thousand acres and engage in 
farming on a great scale. All this required money, 
and money was not to be made by attendance in 
the Senate. In January, 1837, therefore, he wrote 
to friends in Massachusetts, announcing his wish 



A WHIG LEADER 237 

to resign, and urging that the legislature at once 
elect a successor. But as news of his intention 
spread, Whigs in all quarters besought him not to 
withdraw. Those in the Massachusetts legislature 
strongly opposed the step, and appointed a com- 
mittee, with the Speaker, Robert C. Winthrop, at 
their head, to beseech him to remain in the Sen- 
ate, or at least to postpone his resignation. At 
New York city a meeting of his political friends 
was called, Chancellor Kent placed in the chair, 
and an invitation to a public reception tendered. 
If he must leave the Senate, this was to be a tes- 
timonial of a lively sense of his public services. 
If he could be jDersuaded to remain, it was to be 
an opportunity to express their wishes to him in 
a manner as impressive as possible. He did con- 
sent to remain, accepted the New York invitation, 
and one day in March, 1837, was met at Amboy by 
a committee, and escorted to Niblo 's Garden, where, 
in the presence of a vast throng, he gave utterance 
to his ' ' sentiments freely on the great topics of the 
day" in what was long remembered as the " Niblo 's 
Garden Speech." 

Again his theme was the Union and the Consti- '" 
tution. "The general government," said he, "to 
the extent of its power is national. It is not con- 
solidated, it does not embrace all the powers of gov- 
ernment. On the contrary, it is delegated, re- 
strained, strictly limited. But what power it does 
possess, it possesses for the general, not for any 



238 DANIEL WEBSTER 

partial or local, good. It extends over a vast ter- 
ritory, embracing now six-and-twenty States, with 
interests various but not irreconcilable, infinitely 
diversified but capable of being all blended into 
political harmony. He, however, who would pro- 
duce this harmony must survey the whole field. 
. . . We are one in respect to the glorious Con- 
stitution under which we live. We are all united 
in the great brotherhood of American liberty. De- 
scending from the same ancestors, bred in the same 
school, taught in infancy to imbibe the same gen- 
eral political sentiments, Americans all, by birth, 
education, and principle, what but a narrow mind 
or woeful ignorance or prejudice ten times blinded 
can lead any of us to regard the citizens of any 
part of the country as strangers and aliens! 

"Under the present Constitution, wisely admin- 
istered, all are safe, happy, and renowned. . . . 
But if the system is broken, its fragments must fall 
alike on all. Not only the cause of American lib- 
erty, but the grand cause of liberty throughout the 
whole earth, depends in a great measure on up- 
holding the Constitution and Union of these States. 
If shattered and destroyed, no matter by what 
cause, the peculiar and cherished idea of United 
American Liberty will be no more forever. There 
may be free States, it is possible, when there shall 
be separate States. There may be many loose and 
feeble and hostile confederacies where there is now 
one great and united confederacy. But the noble 



A WHIG LEADER 239 

idea of United American liberty, of our liberty, 
such as our fathers established it, will be extin- 
guished forever. . . . Let us, then, stand by 
the Constitution as it is, and by our country as it 
is— one, united, and entire; let it be a truth en- 
graven on our hearts, let it be borne on the flag un- 
der which we rally in every exigency, that we have 
one Country, one Constitution, one destiny." 
In the spring of 1837 Webster again determined 
to visit the West, and in May was on his way to 
the Ohio. As he went down the river, a steamboat 
bearing a hundred citizens of Wheeling met and 
escorted him to their town, where a throng awaited 
him at the landing. A dinner and a speech fol- 
lowed. At Maysville multitudes from the country 
round about came to see and greet him. At Lex- 
ington there was another public dinner, and at 
Louisville a barbecue, at which he again spoke for 
two hours. Thence he went on to North Bend to 
visit General Harrison, and to Cincinnati, where 
there was another outpouring of the people and 
another speech. At St. Louis he was greeted, said 
a newspaper, as no other citizen was ever received 
on the west bank of the Mississippi. At Alton, 
across the river, flags were displayed, the church 
bells rang, and cannon fired as he came ashore. 
The great panic of 1837 was now sweeping over the 
country, Van Buren had summoned Congress to 
a special session, and at Madison Webster turned 
homeward. As he drew near Chicago, a long train 



240 DANIEL WEBSTER 

of wagons and horsemen met him ten miles from 
the town, escorted him to the Lake House, where 
he spoke to the crowd that packed the street. The 
next day he attended a festival held in his honor. 
Pushing eastward, he visited Michigan City, To- 
ledo, and Buffalo, where he was entertained with 
a steamboat regatta on the lake, and then went on 
to New York and Boston. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 

THE decision of Webster to remain in the Sen- 
ate brought him to another turning-point in 
his political career, and he went back to begin a 
new contest with Calhoun for the preservation of 
the Union. The first struggle arose over the tariff, 
and ended in nullification. The second began over 
slavery, and led to secession. Mr. Benton is au- 
thority for the statement that when Calhoun went 
back to his home in the spring of 1833, disappointed 
and downhearted at the slight support the South 
had given to the act of nullification, he told his 
friends that the South could never be united against 
the North on the question of the tariff, and that the 
basis of Southern union must henceforth be the 
questions that sprang from slavery. Certain it is 
that by 1833 the work of the abolitionists and anti- 
slavery people began to tell. It was in 1831 that 
the first number of the "Liberator" appeared, and 
the State of Georgia offered five thousand dollars 
to any one who would kidnap Garrison and bring 
him to the State. It was in 1833 that the American 
Antislavery Society was founded, and the "Tele- 
graph," a nullification journal published at Wash- 

241 



242 DANIEL WEBSTER 

ington, flatly charged the people of the North with 
a deliberate purpose to destroy slavery in the 
South. Twenty newspapers in twenty different 
parts of the North and the South at once made an- 
swer, denying the charge, and accusing Calhoun 
and the nullifiers of again attempting to wreck the 
Union. "His object," said one, "is to fan the 
flame of discord and separate the South from the 
North. Mr. Calhoun has been defeated in his am- 
bitious project of reaching the Presidency. He 
would now gladly ruin the fair fabric of the United 
States that he might become the chief of a South- 
ern confederacy. The tariff was to have been the 
pretext for separation. This having failed, a new 
cause is sought in the question of slavery, and such 
miserable fanatics as Garrison and wretched pub- 
lications as the 'Liberator' are quoted as evidence 
of the feeling of the people of the North." 

But the movement thus started would not go 
down. In 1834 there were antislavery riots in New 
York and Philadelphia. It was in 1835 that Gar- 
rison was mobbed in Boston; that there was a 
riot in Utica; that antislavery papers were taken 
from the post-office in Charleston, South Carolina, 
and burned on the public square; that Jackson in 
his message asked for the exclusion of such docu- 
ments from the mails; and that four slaveholding 
States requested the non-slaveholding to suppress 
the abolitionists. It was in 1836 that James G. 
Birney was mobbed in Cincinnati; that Calhoun 



THE STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 243 

presented a bill to stop the delivery by postmasters 
of antislavery books, papers, tracts, and pictures; 
and that the House of Representatives passed the 
first of the gag resolutions. It was in 1837, a few 
weeks before Webster spoke in Niblo's Garden, 
that the United States recognized the indepen- 
dence of the slaveholding republic of Texas. 

The fate of slavery was now clearly a national 
issue, and in the Niblo's Garden speech Webster 
placed himself on record. That a desire or inten- 
tion to annex Texas to the United States already 
existed could not be disguised, he said. To this 
he saw objections, insurmountable objections. 

"When the Constitution was formed it is not 
probable," said he, "that either its framers or the 
people ever looked to the admission of any States 
into the Union, except such as then already existed 
and such as should be formed out of territory then 
already belonging to the United States. Fifteen 
years after the adoption of the Constitution, how- 
ever, the case of Louisiana arose. Louisiana was 
obtained by treaty with France, who had recently 
obtained it from Spain, but the object of this 
acquisition certainly was not mere extension of ter- 
ritory. Other great political interests were con- 
nected with it. Spain, while she possessed Louisi- 
ana, had held the mouth of the great rivers which 
rise in the Western States and flow into the Gulf 
of Mexico. She had disputed our use of the rivers. 
. . . The command of these rivers to the sea 

14 



244 DANIEL WEBSTER 

was, therefore, the great object arrived at in the 
acquisition of Louisiana." 

A like policy and a like necessity led to the pur- 
chase of Florida. But no such policy required the 
annexation of Texas. Her addition to our terri- 
tory was not necessary to the full and complete 
enjoyment of that already possessed. The limits 
of the Union in that direction ought not to be ex- 
tended. Texas, moreover, was likely to be a slave- 
holding country, no matter by whom possessed, and 
he was not willing to do anything that should ' ' ex- 
tend the slavery of the African race on this conti- 
nent, or add other slaveholding States to the Union. 
. . . When I say that I regard slavery in itself 
as a great moral, social, and political evil, I only 
use language which has been adopted by distin- 
guished men, themselves citizens of slaveholding 
States. I shall do nothing, therefore, to favor or 
encourage its further extension. We have slavery 
-already amongst us. The Constitution found it in 
the Union; it recognized it, and gave it solemn 
guarantees. To the full extent of these guarantees 
we are all bound in honor, in justice, and by the 
Constitution. . . . But when we come to speak 
of admitting new States, the subject assumes an 
entirely different aspect. Our rights and our duties 
are then both different. . . . When it is pro- 
posed to bring new members into this political 
partnership, the old members have a right to say 
under what terms such new partners are to come 



THE STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 245 

in, and what they are to bring along with them. 
. . . In my opinion, the people of the United 
States will not consent to bring into the Union 
a new, vastly extensive, and slaveholding coun- 
try, large enough for half a dozen or a dozen 
States. In my opinion, they ought not to consent 
to it." Here was free-soilism plainly stated, and 
here, as Webster claimed thirteen years later, was 
to be found the principle of the Wilmot Proviso. 

As he was not a Southern expansionist, so he 
was not a Northern abolitionist. "Slavery as it 
exists in the States, ' ' said he, ' ' is beyond the reach 
of Congress. It is a concern of the States them- 
selves. They have never submitted it to Congress, 
and Congress has no rightful power over it. I 
shall concur, therefore, in no act, no measure, no 
menace, no indication of purpose which shall in- 
terfere, or threaten to interfere, with the exclusive 
authority of the several States over the subject of 
slavery as it exists within their respective limits. 
All this appears to me to be matter of plain and 
imperative duty. ' ' 

On the great question then before Congress— the 
right of citizens to petition for the abolition of 
slavery in the District of Columbia, and the duty 
of Congress to receive and its power to grant peti- 
tions—he said not a word. Yet there was no phase 
of the struggle for the rights of man which at that 
time more deeply interested the people. For nearly 
a decade past the abolitionists had been flooding 



246 DANIEL WEBSTER 

the Senate and the House at each session with peti- 
tions to abolish both slavery and the slave-trade 
in the District over which Congress had absolute 
jurisdiction. So long as the pro-slavery party was 
content to allow these petitions to take the usual 
course of such appeals, so long as it would suffer 
them to be received, committed, and utterly forgot- 
ten, no serious consequences followed. But their 
increasing number, the persistence with which they 
were introduced, the spirit believed to animate their 
signers, and fear of the evils likely to follow a con- 
stant agitation of the slavery question had, of late 
years, so alarmed the slaveholders that in 1836 the 
House of Representatives ordered that every paper 
which in any way had to do with slavery should, 
without being printed or referred, be laid upon the 
table, and that no further action whatever should 
be had thereon. As yet the Senate was not ready 
to go so far ; but when, in December, 1837, Calhoun 
presented resolutions on the subject of slavery, 
and Clay moved a substitute for one of them, Web- 
ster spoke out. "The intermeddling," said Cal- 
houn, ' ' of any State, or States, or their citizens, to 
abolish slavery in this District, or any of the terri- 
tories, on the ground or under the pretext that it 
is immoral or sinful, or the passage of any act or 
measure of Congress with that view, would be a 
direct and dangerous attack on the institutions of 
all the slave States. ' ' Such interference, said Clay, 
"would be a violation of the faith implied in the 



THE STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 247 

cession by the States of Virginia and Maryland." 
From this Webster dissented. He denied that any 
faith had been plighted, maintained the absolute 
jurisdiction of Congress over the District, and held 
that there was nothing in the act of cession, noth- 
ing in the Constitution, nothing in the whole his- 
tory of the transaction, implying any limitation on 
the right of Congress to legislate as it pleased on 
slavery. "If," said he, "the assertion contained 
in this resolution be true, a very strange result, as 
it seems to me, must follow. The resolution affirms 
that the faith of Congress is plighted indefinitely. 
If this be so, then it is an obligation that binds us 
forever, as much as if it were one of the prohibi- 
tions of the Constitution itself. And at all times 
hereafter, even if, in the course of their history, 
availing themselves of events, or changing their 
views of policy, the States themselves should make 
provision for the emancipation of their slaves, the 
existing state of things could not be changed, nev- 
ertheless, in this District. It does really seem to me 
that if this resolution, in its terms, be true, though 
slavery in every other part of the world may be 
abolished, yet in the metropolis of this great repub- 
lic it is established in perpetuity." 

Whether slavery was or was not abolished con- 
cerned him little. The constitutional question alone 
interested him, and, writing of the resolutions to 
a friend, he said: "Mr. Clay and Mr. Calhoun 
have attempted in 1838 what, in my judgment, they 



248 DANIEL WEBSTER 

attempted in 1833— to make a new Constitution." 
Nor was this a hasty judgment. That Calhoun was 
really bent on some scheme harmful to the Consti- 
tution and the Union seems to have been Webster's 
deliberate belief; and later in the session of 1838, 
in a speech famous in its day, he reviewed the polit- 
ical conduct of Calhoun sincel833,and charged him 
with a steady design to break up the Union. ' ' The 
honorable member from South Carolina," said he, 
''habitually indulges in charges of usurpation and 
oppression against the government of his country. 
He daily denounces its important measures in the 
language in which our Revolutionary fathers spoke 
of the oppression of the mother country. . . . 
A principal object in his late political movements, 
the gentleman himself tells us, was to unite the 
entire South; and against whom or against what 
does he wish to unite the entire South? . . . 
While the gentleman thus wishes to unite the entire 
South, I pray to know, sir, if he expects me to turn 
toward the polar star, and, acting on the same prin- 
ciple, to utter a cry of Rally! to the whole North? 
Heaven forbid! To the day of my death neither 
he nor others shall ever hear such a cry from me. 
"Finally, the honorable member declares that 
he shall now march off under the banner of State 
Rights! March off from whom! March off from 
what? We have been contending for great prin- 
ciples. We have been struggling to maintain the 
liberty and to restore the prosperity of the coun- 



THE STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 249 

try; we have made these straggles here, in the 
national councils, with the old flag, the true Ameri- 
can flag, the eagle and the stars and stripes, wav- 
ing over the chamber in which we sit. He now 
tells us, however, that he marches off under the 
States' Rights banner. 

' ' Let him go. I remain. I am where I ever have 
been and ever mean to be. Here, standing on the 
platform of the general Constitution,— a platform 
broad enough and firm enough to uphold every 
interest of the whole country,— I shall still be 
found. ... I move off under no banner not 
known to the whole American people, and to their 
Constitution and laws." 

The position thus publicly taken by Webster on 
the annexation of Texas, the abolition of slavery, 
and the power of Congress to make the District of 
Columbia free soil, brought out letters asking for 
further statements of his opinion on the question 
of the hour. To one he wrote : " I think you would 
be very safe in adopting, in your House, an anti- 
Texas report. As to slavery, I think it very safe 
to adopt a resolution condemning Mr. Patton's 
resolution. Whether it will be best to go farther, 
you who are on the spot can best decide. My own 
opinion is that the antislavery feeling is growing 
stronger and stronger every day; and while we 
must be careful to countenance nothing which vio- 
lates the Constitution or invades the rights of 
others, it is our policy, in my opinion most clearly, 



250 DANIEL WEBSTER 

not to yield the substantial truth for the sake of 
conciliating those whom we never can conciliate, at 
the expense of the loss of the friendship and sup- 
port of those great masses of good men who are 
interested in the antislavery cause. 

"I send you inclosed a copy of a letter lately 
addressed by me to Mr. Peck of the House of Rep- 
resentatives. It states shortly the opinions which 
I hold, and am ready to express, on the general 
slavery question. I refer you also to some remarks 
of mine, published in the 'Intelligencer,' upon Mr. 
Clay's substitute for Mr. Calhoun's resolution." 

In this letter to Mr. Peck, Webster declares his 
belief to be that Congress has no power to free 
slaves in any State, but may do so in the District 
of Columbia, and may regulate the purchase and 
sale of slaves in the District in any manner thought 
just and expedient; that the citizens of the United 
States may petition for the abolition of slavery in 
the District; and "that all such petitions, being 
respectfully written, ought to be received, read, re- 
ferred, and considered in the same manner as peti- 
tions on other important subjects." 

The campaign of 1840 was now at hand, and as 
all signs pointed to a great Whig victory, the 
Whigs of Massachusetts put Webster in nomina- 
tion. But no one else thought of him for a moment, 
and when the National Convention met in Decem- 
ber, 1839, William Henry Harrison was chosen to 
lead the party. No platform was adopted, but a 



THE STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 251 

Baltimore newspaper furnished one in the sneer 
that, with two thousand dollars a year, Harrison 
would be content to live in a log cabin and drink 
hard cider, and this was all the Whigs needed. To 
discuss issues and principles was useless. As Web- 
ster said truly, the people wanted a change, and a 
change they were determined to have, and for a 
party bent on a change the Hero of Tippecanoe was 
just the man and the slur cast on his poverty was 
just the platform. Save the little red school-house, 
nothing was dearer to the heart of the people than 
the log cabin, and no insult more galling could pos- 
sibly have been uttered. That humble abode, with 
its puncheon floor, its mud-smeared sides, its latch- 
string, its window, where well-greased paper did 
duty for glass, had ever been, and was still, the 
symbol of American hardihood, and instantly be- 
came the true Whig watchword. On vacant lots 
in every city and town, on ten thousand village 
greens, the cabin, with a coon's skin on the wall, 
with the latch-string hanging out in token of wel- 
come, and with a barrel of hard cider close beside 
the door, became the Whig headquarters. Mounted 
on wheels and occupied by speakers, it was dragged 
from village to village. Log-cabin raisings, log- 
cabin medals, log-cabin badges, magazines, alma- 
nacs, song-books, pictures, were everywhere to be 
seen; and into this wild campaign of song and 
laughter Webster entered with unwonted zeal. 
Though nobody wanted him to be President, the 



252 DANIEL WEBSTER 

whole country seemed jwssessed to hear him speak. 
Countless Tippecanoe clubs elected him a member ; 
innumerable "raisings" claimed his presence. 
New Hampshire appealed to him as the State where 
he was born. The West clamored for him as the 
stanch friend of her interests. A score of towns 
wanted him as the orator for the Fourth of July. 
The candidate himself was not so eagerly sought. 

To many of their appeals Webster acceded, and 
addressed meeting after meeting till, he writes to 
his wife, he is "sore from speaking." In another 
letter he tells her: "I am charged with burning 
the convent at Charlestown [1836]. Do you recol- 
lect how I did it? Will you promise not to betray 
me if I deny it?" 

His great speeches were at Saratoga, Bunker 
Hill, New York, and Richmond. At Saratoga, 
catching the spirit of the times, he lamented that 
he too had not been born in a log cabin. "Gen- 
tlemen, it did not happen to me to be born in a 
log cabin; but my elder brothers and sisters were 
born in a log cabin, raised amid the snow-drifts of 
New Hampshire at a period so early that when the 
smoke first rose from its rude chimney and curled 
over the frozen hills there was no similar evidence 
of a white man's habitation between it and the set- 
tlements on the rivers of Canada. Its remains still 
exist. I make to it an annual visit. I carry my 
children to it, to teach them the hardships endured 
by the generations which have gone before them. 



THE STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 253 

. . . And if ever I am ashamed of it, or if I 
ever fail in affectionate veneration for him who 
raised it, and defended it against savage violence 
and destruction, cherished all the domestic virtues 
beneath its roof, and, through the fire and blood 
of a seven years' revolutionary war, shrank from 
no danger, no toil, no sacrifice, to serve his coun- 
try, and to raise his children to a condition better 
than his own, may my name and the name of my 
posterity be blotted forever from the memory of 
mankind!" After the Bunker Hill festival, the 
area covered by the crowd was measured, and sev- 
enty-five thousand persons were said to have at- 
tended. 

At Richmond, in October, Webster spoke to the 
Whig Convention gathered in the Capitol Square 
to do him honor. He stood now on dangerous 
ground, for the cry had been raised that to invite 
such a man to come to Virginia and speak to Vir- 
ginians was a great breach of propriety. That he 
should make clear his views on certain matters 
seemed to him therefore quite necessary; and as 
one of these was slavery, he took occasion, in the 
course of the speech, to put himself again on rec- 
ord. ' ' I am brought, ' ' said he, ' ' to advert for one 
moment to what I constantly see in all the admin- 
istration papers from Baltimore south. It is one 
perpetual outcry, admonishing the people of the 
South that their own State governments, and the 
property they hold under them, are not secure if 






z 



254 DANIEL WEBSTER 

they admit a Northern man to any considerable 
share in the administration of the general govern- 
ment. You all know that that is the universal 
cry. ... I shall ask some friend connected 
with the press to circulate in Virginia what I said 
on this subject in the Senate of the United States 
in January, 1830. I have nothing to add to or sub- 
tract from what I then said. I commend it to 
your attention, or rather I desire you to look at 
it. I hold that Congress is absolutely precluded 
from interfering in any manner, direct or indirect, 
with this or with any other of the institutions of 
the States." When the delegates heard this they 
cheered him wildly, and one in the crowd cried out, 
"We wish this could be heard from Maryland to 
Louisiana, and we wish that the sentiment just ex- 
pressed may be repeated." "Repeat! Repeat!" 
was now heard on every side. ' ' Well, ' ' said Web- 
ster, "I repeat it, proclaim it on the wings of all 
the winds, tell it to all your friends [cries of "We 
will ! We will !"], tell it, I say, that, standing here 
in the capital of Virginia, beneath an October sun, 
in the midst of this assemblage, before the entire 
country and upon all the responsibility which be- 
longs to me, I say that there is no power, direct 
or indirect, in Congress or the general government 
to interfere in the slightest degree with the insti- 
tutions of the South." 



CHAPTER XII 



SECRETARY OF STATE 



THE election over and won, Harrison tendered 
the Department of State to Clay, and, when he 
refused, asked Webster to choose between the State 
Department and the Treasury. To this Webster 
replied : ' ' The question of accepting a seat in your 
cabinet, should it be tendered me, has naturally 
been the subject of my reflections and of consul- 
tations with friends. The result of these reflec- 
tions and consultations has been that I should 
accept the office of Secretary of State, should it be 
offered to me under circumstances such as now 
exist. ' ' 

The President-elect answered: "I entirely ap- 
prove of your choice of the two tendered you"; 
and on March 4, Webster, having resigned his seat 
in the Senate, took up the duties of Secretary of 
State. 

The first official duty laid upon him was the 
revision of the inaugural address, which the Presi- 
dent-elect had prepared with much pains, and which 
abounded in that sort of classical knowledge so 
fashionable when Harrison was a lad. Roman his- 
tory was freely drawn on, and the speech was sprin- 

255 



256 DANIEL WEBSTER 

kled with references to Caesar, the proconsuls, and 
the Roman knights. This was too much for the 
new secretary, and, after a long struggle, the Presi- 
dent-elect agreed to leave out most of his warnings 
from the past. The story is told that when the 
work of revision was over and Webster reached 
his lodgings, the mistress of the house remarked 
that he looked tired, and asked if anything had 
happened. "You would think that something had 
happened if you knew what I have done, ' ' was the 
reply. "I have killed seventeen Roman procon- 
suls." But Caesar and the Roman knights es- 
caped, and still adorn the inaugural address. 

One month after its delivery Harrison died, and 
the stormy administration of Tyler began. At the 
special session of Congress called by Harrison to 
correct the evils of Democratic rule, Tyler agreed 
to most of the measures of reform. He signed the 
bill repealing the subtreasury act, the bill to dis- 
tribute the proceeds of the sales of public land, the 
bill to change the banking system of the District 
of Columbia, and the revenue bill; but he vetoed 
the charter for a "Fiscal Bank of the United 
States," and the Whigs at once brought in a bill 
to establish a "Fiscal Corporation." While the 
matter was still before Congress, members of that 
body consulted Webster as to the best course to 
pursue, and were given this advice: 

"I should not volunteer my opinions to you in 
any matter respecting the discharge of your public 




JOSEPH STORY, ASSOCIATE JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT. 



SECRETARY OP STATE 259 

duties in another department of the government; 
but as you spoke last evening of the general policy 
of the Whigs, under the present posture of affairs, 
relative to the Bank Bill, I am willing to place you 
in full possession of my opinion on that subject. 

''It is not necessary to go farther back into the 
history of the past than the introduction of the pres- 
ent measure into the House of Representatives. 
That introduction took place within two or three 
days after the President's disapproval of the for- 
mer bill, and I have not the slightest doubt that it 
was honestly and fairly intended as a measure 
likely to meet the President's approbation. I do 
not believe that one in fifty of the Whigs had any 
sinister design whatever, if there was an individual 
who had such design. But I know that the Presi- 
dent had been greatly troubled in regard to the 
former bill, being desirous, on one hand, to meet 
the wishes of his friends if he could, and, on the 
other, to do justice to his own opinions. Having 
returned this first bill, with objections, a new one 
was presented in the House, and appeared to be 
making rapid progress. I know the President re- 
gretted this, and wished that the whole subject 
might have been postponed. At the same time, I 
believe he was disposed to consider calmly and 
conscientiously whatever other measure might be 
presented to him. 

1 ' But, in the meantime, Mr. Botts 's very extraor- 
dinary letter made its appearance. Mr. Botts is a 



260 DANIEL WEBSTER 

Whig of eminence and influence in our ranks. I 
need not recall to your mind the contents of the 
letter. It is enough to say that it purported that 
the Whigs designed to circumvent their own Presi- 
dent, to 'head him,' as the expression was, to 
place him in a condition of embarrassment. From 
that moment I felt that it was the duty of the 
Whigs to forbear from pressing the Bank Bill fur- 
ther at the present time. I thought it was but just 
in them to give decisive proof that they entertained 
no such purpose as seemed to be imputed to them. 
And since there was reason to believe that the 
President would be glad of time for information 
and reflection before being called on to form an 
opinion on another plan for a bank— a plan some- 
what new to the country— I thought his known 
wishes ought to be complied with. I think so still. 
I think this is a course just to the President and 
wise on behalf of the Whig party. A decision 
which ought, in my judgment, to be given to the 
intimation, from whatever quarter, of a disposi- 
tion among the Whigs to embarrass the President. 
This is the main ground of my opinion, and such 
a rebuke, I think, would be found in the general 
resolution of the party to postpone further pro- 
ceedings on the subject to the next session, now 
only a little more than three months off. 

' ' The session has been fruitful of important acts. 
The wants of the treasury have been supplied, pro- 
visions have been made for fortification and for 



SECRETARY OF STATE 261 

the navy, the repeal of the subtreasury has passed, 
the Bankrupt Bill, that great measure of justice 
and benevolence, has been carried through, and the 
Land Bill seems about to receive the approbation 
of Congress. Iu all these measures, forming a mass 
of legislation more important, I will venture to 
say, than all the proceedings of Congress for many 
years past, the President has cordially concurred. 

' ' I agree that the currency question is, neverthe- 
less, the great question before the country ; but, con- 
sidering what has already been accomplished in 
regard to other things, considering the differences 
of opinion which exist upon this remaining one, 
and considering, especially, that it is the duty of 
the Whigs effectually to repel and put down any 
supposition that they are endeavoring to put the 
President in a condition in which he must act under 
restraint or embarrassment, I am fully and entirely 
persuaded that the bank subject should be post- 
poned to the next session." 

The advice was disregarded; the Fiscal Cor- 
poration Bill went to the President and was ve- 
toed, and four members of the cabinet resigned 
in a body. A fifth soon followed, and the great 
Whig leaders, in a formal manifesto, read John 
Tyler out of the party. Webster remained in the 
cabinet. For a moment he seems to have been in 
doubt just what to do, and in his uncertainty wrote 
post-haste to a friend in Boston, "Do the Whigs 
of Massachusetts think I ought to quit or ought 

15 






262 DANIEL WEBSTER 

to stay?" and asked the Massachusetts delegation 
to meet him in consultation. The advice of those 
gentlemen was not to quit; and three days later, 
Webster, in a letter to a newspaper, made known 
his reasons for remaining. He saw no cause for 
the sudden dissolution of the cabinet by the volun- 
tary act of its members ; he believed that some sort 
of institution to aid the financial operations of the 
government and to give the country a good cur- 
rency and cheap exchanges was absolutely neces- 
sary, and that, to get it, there must be a union of 
Whig President, Whig Congress, and Whig people. 
Having decided to remain in the Cabinet, Webster 
became the champion of the President, and in un- 
signed notes to newspapers attacked his late col- 
leagues. 

"It is plain enough," he said in one such note, 
' ' that the ex-secretaries take the President at great 
disadvantage. 

"They write him letters which they know he 
cannot answer, because the President of the United 
States cannot enter into such a correspondence. 

1 ' They use weapons, therefore, which they know 
he cannot use. 

' ' In the next place, they undertake to state Cab- 
inet conversations, which he regards as confiden- 
tial, and to which he cannot refer without violat- 
ing his own sense of propriety and dignity. 

' ' Having thus placed the President in a position 
in which he cannot defend himself, they make war 



SECRETARY OF STATE 263 

upon him; and this we suppose high-mindedness 
and ' chivalry.' " 

Back of all this were far weightier reasons which 
he could not publicly declare. Grave questions of 
long standing between Great Britain and the United 
States were pressing for a settlement, peaceably if 
possible, forcibly if necessary ; for settled they must 
be. The north boundary of Maine, after fifty-eight 
years of discussion, was still undefined. The affair 
of the Caroline, and the assumption by Great Brit- 
ain of all responsibility for the destruction of that 
steamboat, had aroused the whole frontier of New 
York; the arrest and trial of McLeod had thrown 
Great Britain into a passion ; while her assertion of 
a right to search ships supposed to be engaged in 
the African slave-trade stirred up a question once 
made a cause of war. Could Webster bring about a 
peaceful settlement of these many sources of ill feel- 
ing and ill will between two nations which of all 
others ought to be friends, he would render to his 
country services of no common sort ; and the belief 
that he could do much to accomplish such an end 
was the chief reason why his State delegation was 
opposed to his resigning the Secretaryship of State. 
Again, he was an Eastern man, and, in the opinion 
of the people of Maine, the boundary question 
would never be settled till a man born and bred 
among them took the dispute in hand. 

The first of these matters to be urged upon him 
was the case of Alexander McLeod. A rebellion 



264 DANIEL WEBSTER 

which broke out in Canada in 1837 had with diffi- 
culty been put down; and toward the end of the 
year a band of Canadian refugees and American 
sympathizers took possession of Navy Island, set 
up a temporary government, adopted a flag and 
seal and issued paper money, and became an ob- 
ject of interest to all along the Niagara frontier. 
Seeing in this a chance to make a little money, the 
owner of a small steamboat called the Caroline 
cut her out of the ice in Buffalo Creek, and on 
the 29th of December, 1837, made two trips be- 
tween Fort Schlosser and Navy Island, taking 
over men, arms, food, and a cannon. Sir Allan 
McNab, commander of the provincial forces, looked 
on this boat as in the service of the insurgents, 
called for volunteers to destroy her, and on the 
night of December 29 she was boarded at Fort 
Schlosser by five boat-loads of armed men, who 
drove her occupants ashore, gave her to the flames, 
and sent her, a blazing wreck, over Niagara Falls. 
In the course of the attack, several of our citizens 
were wounded, and one was killed outright. A 
formal demand for redress and apology was 
promptly made on the British government ; but no 
apology was tendered, no redress was offered, and 
the affair was well-nigh forgotten when Alexander 
McLeod appeared at Lewiston one day in Novem- 
ber, 1840, and boasted that he was one of the at- 
tacking party and had shot Amos Durfee. For 
this he was arrested on the charge of arson and 



SECRETARY OF STATE 265 

murder and indicted by the grand jury in Feb- 
ruary, 1841. Meantime Mr. Fox, the British min- 
ister, who in 1838 treated the burning of the Caro- 
line as the unauthorized act of private individuals, 
and described the Caroline as a boat of "piratical 
character," now demanded the instant release of 
McLeod, because the destruction of this steam- 
boat was a public act of persons in his Majesty's 
service, obeying the orders of their superiors. Mr. 
Fox was then writing without authority. But in 
February Lord Palmerston assumed responsibil- 
ity for the deed, declaring that " McLeod 's execu- 
tion would produce war— war immediate and 
frightful in its character, because it would be 
a war of retaliation and revenge ' ' ; and on March 
12, 1841, Mr. Fox formally demanded McLeod 's 
release in the name of Great Britain. The dec- 
laration that the invasion of our soil and the 
burning of the Caroline were acts authorized by 
Great Britain, the demand for the instant release 
of the prisoner, and the threat of war gave to the 
incident a serious character which Webster was 
not ready to meet. He put on a bold front, how- 
ever, and then did all he could to secure the release 
of McLeod. The attorney-general was sent with 
all haste to New York with "authentic evidence 
of the recognition by the British government of 
the destruction of the Caroline as an act of public 
force, done by national authority." He was to 
"proceed to Lockport, or wherever else the trial 



266 DANIEL WEBSTER 

may be holden, and furnish the prisoner's counsel 
with the evidence." He was to "see that he have 
skilful and eminent counsel, if such be not already 
retained"; and he was to say to them "that it is 
the wish of this government that, in case his de- 
fense be overruled by the court in which he shall 
be tried, proper steps be taken immediately for 
removing the cause, by writ of error, to the Su- 
preme Court of the United States." A letter was 
then written to William H. Seward, Governor of 
New York. 

"The President," said Webster, "has learned, 
not directly, but by means of a letter from a friend, 
that you had expressed a disposition to direct a 
nolle prosequi in the case of the indictment against 
McLeod, on being informed by this government 
that the British government had officially avowed 
the attack on the Caroline as an act done by its own 
authority. 

' ' The President directs me to express his thanks 
for the promptitude with which you appear dis- 
posed to perform an act which he supposes proper 
for the occasion, and which is calculated to relieve 
this government from embarrassments and the 
country from some dangers of collision with a for- 
eign power. 

''You will have seen Mr. Crittenden, whom I 
take this occasion to commend to your kindest 
regard. ' ' 

Governor Seward replied that he had "neither 



SECRETARY OF STATE 267 

expressed nor entertained the disposition to direct 
a nolle prosequi" in the case of McLeod, but told 
the attorney-general that he would pardon the pris- 
oner if found guilty; that there should be no exe- 
cution, no war. Webster, however, was not con- 
tent with such an answer. Letters from Lewis 
Cass, the American minister at Paris, assured him 
that Great Britain was in earnest; that it was no 
secret that her minister had been instructed to leave 
Washington if McLeod was hanged ; that the Brit- 
ish fleet in the Mediterranean was to assemble grad- 
ually at Gibraltar and sail thence to Halifax; and 
that the English colony in Paris was heartily in 
favor of war, which would be fought with great 
bitterness. That our own countrymen were quite 
as ready was likewise no secret; for the report of 
the Committee on Foreign Affairs, made in Feb- 
ruary, on the letters of Mr. Fox was far from 
pacific, and during the debate on printing the re- 
port feeling ran high. If war was to be averted, 
the trial must be prevented ; and, as one way to pre- 
vent it, Webster, in his reply to Mr. Fox, observed 
that the indictment had been removed into the Su- 
preme Court of New York, and that it was "now 
competent for McLeod, by the ordinary process of 
habeas corpus, to bring his case for hearing before 
that tribunal. ' ' The hint was taken ; the writ was 
sued out, and the first intimation Seward had of 
this fact was when the prisoner passed through 
Albany in charge of the sheriff to attend the sitting 



268 DANIEL WEBSTER 

of the court at New York. Seward bade the attor- 
ney-general of New York resist the motion for the 
discharge of McLeod. The federal government 
permitted the district attorney to act as one of the 
counsel for McLeod, and the case was looked on 
by the people as a struggle between the State and 
federal governments. At this stage the State tri- 
umphed, the discharge was refused, and the indict- 
ment was sent down to the Circuit Court, there to 
be traversed. 

Both President and secretary were greatly dis- 
appointed. A speedy trial, if trial there must be, 
was most desirable. Every postponement, every 
delay, meant a new cause of irritation to Great 
Britain, raised the angry feelings of the people 
along the border to a yet higher pitch, and made 
the Hunters' Lodges and the Patriotic Societies 
along the frontier from Maine to Wisconsin more 
active than ever. So grave did the danger from 
this source seem that the secretary thought it well 
worth while to investigate the doings of these clubs 
by every means in his power. An agent was sent 
to confer with the army officers at Buffalo, Cleve- 
land, and Detroit; the collectors, marshals, and dis- 
trict attorneys along the border were called on to 
tell all they knew, and from these sources Webster 
was soon able to advise the President what to do. 
''I think," he wrote, "I have learned pretty fully 
the real object and plan of open action of these 
'Hunters' Lodges,' 'Patriotic Societies,' etc., 



SECRETARY OF STATE 269 

which are in existence all along the northern fron- 
tier from Maine to Wisconsin. 

"They are in constant correspondence with the 
disaffected in Canada, and these disaffected persons 
come over the line and harangue them in their 
secret meetings. They do not expect to be able to 
invade Canada with any hope of success unless 
war breaks out between Canada and the United 
States; but they desire that event above all things, 
and, to bring it about, will naturally join in any 
violence or outbreak if they think they can do so 
with impunity. They may even attempt violence 
upon McLeod, should he be discharged by the courts 
or on his way from the prison to the place where 
the court shall be sitting. 

' ' The aggregate of the members of all these clubs 
is probably not less than ten thousand. Cleveland 
is rather their headquarters. 

"If war breaks out, these persons do not propose 
to join the forces of the United States, but to unite 
themselves to the disaffected in Canada, declare the 
provinces free, and set up another government. 

"I am told that regimental officers are already 
designated for the command of these volunteers. 

"That such as above described is the real state 
of things there can be no doubt. 

"It is evidently full of danger, and I am quite 
surprised at the apparent ignorance or supineness 
of the government of New York, who represent, 
evidently, that there is no danger of any violence. 



270 DANIEL WEBSTER 

"Our duty is, I think, in the first place, to have 
officers all along the frontier in whom we have con- 
fidence, and to let them understand that there is 
danger. 

' ' In the next place, it becomes us to take all pos- 
sible care that no personal violence be used on 
McLeod. If a mob should kill him, war would be 
inevitable in ten days. Of this there is no doubt. 

"I regret that the attorney-general did not go 
on and confer with McLeod 's counsel, notwith- 
standing the postponement of the trial. They ap- 
pear to me to be men of no great force, and who 
place their main reliance on being able to prove an 
alibi for their clients. But such a defense does not 
meet the exigency of the case nor fulfil the duty of 
this government." 

When the trial came on at Utica, in October, 
1841, an alibi was established, and McLeod was set 
free. But the questions of the inviolability of na- 
tional territory and of apology were yet to be set- 
tled. 

While the trial of McLeod thus dragged slowly 
along, the angry feeling toward Great Britain was 
yet more inflamed by what seemed to be a renewal 
of her old claim to the right of search. For thirty 
years and more past she had been engaged in a 
most honorable endeavor to stop the African slave- 
trade, and again and again had made treaties with 
European powers by which British naval officers 
might search their merchant vessels off the coast 



SECRETARY OF STATE 271 

of Africa. Portugal and Spain, in 1817 ; the Neth- 
erlands, in 1818; Sweden, in 1821; and France, in 
1831 and 1833, had each, by treaty, granted her this 
privilege, but our own country never would con- 
sent. As a consequence, our flag was used by 
slavers of all nations, and the sight of it off the 
African coast aroused suspicions as to the char- 
acter of the ship. For this reason it happened 
that in 1841 some American merchantmen were 
seized by British cruisers and held as slavers. In 
the correspondence which followed, Lord Palni- 
erston claimed a right for British cruisers to visit 
and search ships carrying our flag in order to as- 
certain their national character, avowed the in- 
tention of his government to exercise this right, 
and declared that such examination was absolutely 
necessary; and so the matter stood when Webster 
became Secretary of State. 

Meantime, the interstate slave-trade afforded a 
new cause of irritation. While the brig Creole, 
loaded with slaves, was on her way from Hampton 
to New Orleans, the negroes rose, killed one man, 
shut the crew in the hold, took possession of the 
vessel, and brought her into the British West In- 
dian port of Nassau. There a few of the slaves 
were held for murder, and the rest were set free. 
This incident, following hard upon like action in 
the cases of the Comet, the Encomium, and the En- 
terprise, inflamed the South and added new recruits 
to the party eager for war. 






s 



272 DANIEL WEBSTER 

Finally the old question of the northeast boun- 
dary, which had been tormenting the people of 
Maine since 1783, reached a pass where an appeal 
to force seemed almost at hand. 

Dark as the prospect was when Webster went 
into office, a great change for the better had already 
taken place. Lord Melbourne's administration had 
been beaten in the House of Commons, and in 
August, 1841, he and his colleagues had resigned; 
Lord Palmerston had been succeeded by Lord 
Aberdeen as Secretary of Foreign Affairs; Mr. 
Stevenson, our minister at London, had resigned, 
and Mr. Everett had been appointed, in his stead ; 
and from him, in January, 1842, came the pleasing- 
intelligence that Lord Ashburton would be sent 
to Washington, as special minister, to settle the 
boundary and all other questions in dispute be- 
tween Great Britain and the United States. 

Most happily for the peace of the world, the two 
men now intrusted with the negotiation on which 
hung the issue of war or peace came to their work 
in a friendly spirit, and framed the treaty known 
by their names. In the settlement of the Caroline 
affair, Webster was far too yielding. All that he 
could wring from Lord Ashburton was an assur- 
ance that "no slight or disrespect to the sovereign 
authority of the United States" was intended by 
the officers who conducted the raid; an admission 
"that there was in the hurried execution of this 
necessary service a violation of territory"; and a 



SECRETARY OF STATE 273 

statement that, "looking back to what passed at 
this distance of time, what is, perhaps, most to be 
regretted is that some explanation and apology for 
the occurrence was not immediately made." No 
apology, no expression of regret of any sort, was 
ever made: and with this acknowledgment that it 
was perhaps to be regretted that no apology was 
made in 1837, Webster, to his shame, was content. 
' ' The President, ' ' he wrote his lordship, ' ' is con- 
tent to receive these acknowledgments, . . . and 
will make this subject, as a complaint of violation 
of territory, the topic of no further discussion be- 
tween the two countries." 

To insert in the treaty an article orr the subject 
of impressment was found to be impossible, for 
Lord Ashburton had no authority to make stipu- 
lations. But the occasion was taken to address 
to the British plenipotentiary a letter which, as 
Webster truly said, did not "leave the question 
of impressment where it found it, ' ' but ' ' advanced 
the true doctrine in opposition to it to a higher 
and stronger foundation"; which declared that 
"the American government, then, is prepared to 
say that the practise of impressing American sea- 
men from vessels cannot hereafter be allowed to 
take place"; and which announced as a principle 
to be maintained by our government this rule: 
' ' In every regularly documented American mer- 
chant vessel, the crew who navigate it will find 
their protection in the flag which is over them." 



274 DANIEL WEBSTER 

This declaration, said he, "will stand, because it 
announces the true principles of public law; be- 
cause it announces the great doctrine of the equal- 
ity and independence of nations upon the seas; 
and because it declares the determination of the 
government and the people of the United States 
to uphold those principles and to maintain that 
doctrine through good report and through evil re- 
port, forever. We shall negotiate no more, nor 
attempt to negotiate more about impressment. We 
shall not treat hereafter of its limitations to par- 
allels of latitude and longitude. We shall not treat 
of its allowance or disallowance in broad seas or 
narrow seas. We shall think no more of stipulat- 
ing for exemption from its exercise of some of the 
persons composing the crews. Henceforth the deck 
of every American vessel is inaccessible for any 
such purpose. It is protected, guarded, defended 
by the declaration which I have read, and that 
declaration will stand." 

Out of the Caroline affair came the treaty pro- 
vision for the delivery to justice of persons who, 
being charged with murder, attempt to murder, 
piracy, arson, robbery, forgery, or the utterance 
of forged paper, committed within the territories 
of the one, shall be found within the territories of 
the other. With this piece of work Webster was 
well pleased. "I undertake to say that the arti- 
cle for the extradition of offenders, contained in 
the treaty of 1842, if there were nothing else in 
the treaty of any importance, has of itself been 



SECRETARY OF STATE 275 

of more value to this country, and is of more value 
to the progress of civilization, the cause of human- 
ity, and the good understanding between nations, 
than could be readily computed. . . . Since 
the negotiation of this treaty containing this arti- 
cle, we have negotiated treaties with other govern- 
ments of Europe containing similar provisions, 
and that between other governments of Europe 
themselves, treaties have been negotiated contain- 
ing that provision— a provision never before 
known to have existed in any of the treaties be- 
tween European nations." He was glad that it 
had "proved itself worthy of favor and imitation 
in the judgment of the most enlightened nations 
of Europe ; and that it has never been complained 
of by anybody, except by murderers and fugitives 
and felons themselves." Yet it was not wholly 
new to us, for Jay's treaty, made in 1794, contained 
a provision for the rendition of persons charged 
with murder and forgery. 

The old and vexed question of the suppression 
of the African slave trade, so often linked with that 
of search, was settled by an agreement that each 
party should keep in service off the coast a squad- 
ron of not less than eighty guns, and that the two 
fleets should act in concert when necessary. 

The boundary dispute was put at rest by the 
determination of a conventional line and the pay- 
ment to Maine and Massachusetts of large sums 
of money. 

The treaty made and ratified by the Senate, even 



276 DANIEL WEBSTER 

the friends of Webster cried out that the time had 
come for him to leave the cabinet, and were joined 
by the whole Whig press. After his old-time fash- 
ion, he now turned to his friends for advice. Said 
one: "Your best friends here think there is an 
insuperable difficulty in your continuing any longer 
in President Tyler's cabinet." That there might 
be no doubt where he stood, the State convention 
of Massachusetts Whigs, when it met in September, 
read the President out of the party. The duty of 
the convention was to nominate candidates for 
State offices : but it went further, and by one reso- 
lution announced that the misdeeds of Tyler "left 
no alternative to the Whigs of Massachusetts but 
to declare, as they do now declare, their full and 
final separation from him"; and in another reso- 
lution presented Henry Clay to the Whigs of the 
State as justly entitled to their suffrages "for the 
first office in the gift of the American people." 

On the other hand, strangers, men whose opinion 
he had not asked, wrote from all parts of the coun- 
try urging him not to quit the Department of State. 
Some friends in Boston tendered a dinner, that a 
chance might be given him to speak in self-defense ; 
but he asked that the dinner be changed to a public 
reception, and in September, 1842, delivered the 
"Hard to Coax" speech in Faneuil Hall. He 
needed just such a defense, and he made it man- 
fully. To the clamor for his resignation he replied : 
"You know, gentlemen, that twenty years of hon- 




ALEXANDER BARING, LORD ASHBURTON. 



SECRETARY OF STATE 279 

est and not altogether undistinguished service in 
the Whig cause did not save me from an outpour- 
ing of wrath which seldom proceeds from Whig 
presses and Whig tongues against anybody. I am, 
gentlemen, a little hard to coax; but as to being 
driven, that is out of the question. I chose to trust 
my own judgment, and thinking I was at a post 
where I was in the service of my country and could 
do it good, I stayed there. ... No man feels 
more highly the advantage of the advice of friends 
than I do ; but on a question so delicate and impor- 
tant as this I like to choose myself the friends who 
are to give me advice; and upon this subject, gen- 
tlemen, I shall leave you as enlightened as I found 
you. 

' ' I give no pledge ; I make no intimation one way 
or the other; and I will be as free, when this day 
closes, to act, as duty calls, as I was when the dawn 
of this day—" The rest of the sentence was lost 
in an outburst of applause. 

To the State convention of Massachusetts Whigs, 
which said that he was not to be their candidate 
for the Presidency, he uttered this defiance: "I no- 
tice a declaration, made in behalf of all the Whigs 
of this commonwealth, of a full and final separation 
from the President of the United States. If those 
gentlemen saw fit to express their own sentiments 
to that extent, there is no objection. Whigs speak 
their sentiments everywhere ; but whether they may 

assume a privilege to speak for others on a point 
ie 



280 DANIEL WEBSTER 

on which those others have not given them author- 
ity, is another matter. ... I am quite ready 
to submit to all decisions of Whig conventions on 
subjects on which they are authorized to make de- 
cisions. But it is quite another question whether 
a set of gentlemen, however respectable they may 
be as individuals, shall have the power to bind me 
on matters which I have not agreed to submit to 
their decision at all. . . . And in regard to 
the individual who addresses you— what do his 
brother Whigs mean to do with him? Where do 
they mean to place me? This declaration an- 
nounces a full and final separation between the 
Whigs of Massachusetts and the President. If I 
choose to remain in the cabinet, do those gentlemen 
mean to say that I cease to be a Whig? I am quite 
ready to put that question to the people of Massa- 
chusetts. ' ' 

As the speech, copied by one newspaper from 
another, spread through the country, murmurs of 
indignation went up from the Whigs. He was too 
great a man, they had been too proud of him, his 
services had been too signal, to make it safe to turn 
on him and with abuse drive him from the party; 
yet they made him feel their high displeasure. 
"You see what a dust my speech has raised," he 
wrote his son Fletcher. "It is no more than I an- 
ticipated. I am sorry the 'Intelligencer' is acting 
so foolishly, but that is its own affair. The speech 






SECRETARY OF STATE 281 

is printing in pamphlet form in Boston, and will 
be widely circulated." 

There were other newspapers than the "Intelli- 
gencer" that commented on his speech. "If Mr. 
Webster," said one, "thinks he can dictate to the 
Whig convention of Massachusetts, he will find 
that he far overestimates the amount of his influ- 
ence here." "We will tell him," said another, 
"what his Whig brethren have done with him : they 
have nominated Henry Clay for the Presidency, 
and Massachusetts, as sure as she exists in 1844, 
will give her electoral vote to that candidate." 
' ' Mr. Webster, ' ' said a third, ' ' continues to vouch 
for the Wliiggery of Mr. Tyler ; but who will vouch 
for the voucher V) " If , " said another, ' ' he wishes 
to share the fate of Mr. Tyler, and go with him to 
support John C. Calhoun, he is a free agent ; if he 
wishes to give Whig principles and Whig men the 
benefit of his commanding eloquence, he will be 
welcomed back to those ranks long honored by his 
presence and his labors. ' ' Mr. Berrien of Georgia 
told a Whig meeting in New York that he had 
rather be a dog and bay the moon than submit 
as Webster recommended; and the meeting said 
' ' Amen and amen ! ' ' Some thought the speech in- 
dicated that he would leave the cabinet ; others that 
he would stay, as there were many more interna- 
tional difficulties to settle. 

Not the least among these was the Oregon boun- 



282 DANIEL WEBSTER 

dary, which might have been settled in the treaty 
had not the President thought fit to join to it other 
issues which could not be hastily discussed. The 
plan of Tyler was that Great Britain should per- 
suade Mexico to acknowledge the independence of 
Texas and sell us California from latitude 42° to 
36° 31' ; that she should pay a part of the cost, and 
in return take Oregon as far south as the Columbia 
River ; and that Webster should go to London on a 
special mission, with those ends in view. To this the 
Senate would not consent. An effort was then made 
to persuade Mr. Everett to take the newly created 
Chinese mission, and send Webster to London as 
Mr. Everett's successor. This too failed, and early 
in May the "National Intelligencer" announced 
that Daniel Webster had resigned the office of Sec- 
retary of State. For months past the newspapers 
had been asserting and then denying that he would 
surely leave the cabinet; but now, to the joy of the 
Locofocos and the Democrats, the report was true. 
"There is now nothing to disturb the unanimity 
of the cabinet councils," said a Democratic jour- 
nal, "and the administration may henceforth be 
regarded as a unit in sentiment, principles, and pur- 
poses. " Another spread abroad the report that 
the President's son had said, "We have got rid of 
Webster at last." That his resignation had been 
forced, that the President and his Secretary had 
parted bad friends, was long believed, but was not 
true. The attacks of the Whig press, the wide- 



SECRETARY OF STATE 283 

spread belief that he was no longer a Whig, the 
effect this belief might have on his chances of se- 
curing the Presidential nomination sometime in the 
future, the determination of Tyler to take up the 
question of annexing Texas, and the failure to se- 
cure the English mission, were the causes which 
induced him to leave the cabinet. 



\ 
V 



CHAPTER XIII 

LONGING FOR THE PRESIDENCY 

WEBSTER was now, for the first time in fif- 
teen years, a private citizen. That he 
should ever again return to public life seemed far 
from likely. He had passed his sixtieth birthday, 
his private affairs were in disorder, and he was 
free to enjoy the delights of Marshfield, which was 
to him the dearest spot on earth. But his friends 
opposed his retirement. Some insisted that he 
must remove all doubt as to his Whiggery, and sent 
him as a delegate to the Whig convention at An- 
dover, before which he again spoke in defense of 
his conduct. Others in New Hampshire asked that 
they might present his name to the people as a can- 
didate for the Presidency. Still others, in the Gen- 
eral Court of Massachusetts, tendered him a re- 
election to the United States Senate, in place of 
Mr. Choate, who wished to resign. To this he 
answered that he would not affect to deny that he 
much preferred public employment to returning 
to the bar at his time of life ; but his affairs needed 
attention, he must make a living, and he could ill 
afford to go back to the Senate and lose the fifteen 
thousand dollars a year yielded by his practice. 

284 




exterior and interior op 

Webster's law office at 

marshfield, mass. 




LONGING FOR THE PRESIDENCY 287 

Until March 4, 1845, at least, when Mr. Choate's 
term would expire, it was, he said, far more impor- 
tant to him to remain in private life than it could 
be to the nation that he should return to the Senate. 

Never was he more mistaken, for an event that 
he had often contemplated with dread was near at 
hand. As the campaign opened, the two prospec- 
tive candidates, Clay and Van Buren, had earnestly 
striven to put the Texas question out of politics; 
but Tyler, just before the nominating conventions 
met, surprised the Senate with a treaty of annexa- 
tion secretly negotiated with the Texan agent, and 
made annexation the issue of the day. 

Scarcely was this done when the Whig National 
Convention met at Baltimore and nominated Clay, 
not by ballot, but with a shout that shook the build- 
ing. The next day the Whigs held a great ratifica- 
tion meeting, before which Webster appeared to 
make his peace with the party. Again he solemnly 
declared himself a Whig, spoke of Clay in the 
warmest terms, was glad to present the great lead- 
er 's name to the country as the Whig candidate for 
the Presidency, and knew of no question before the 
people on which he did not agree with the candi- 
date. The wild cheers that greeted Webster gave 
assurance that he was forgiven, and expressed con- 
fidence that the reunited and harmonious party was 
now sure of victory. This confidence was much 
disturbed when the Democratic convention, a few 
weeks later, rejected Van Buren, nominated Polk, 



288 DANIEL WEBSTER 

and demanded the annexation of Texas. Polk was 
an almost unknown man, and that he should de- 
feat Harry of the West seemed laughable. But the 
demand for Texas was serious, for now the Whigs 
must meet that issue or take the consequence of 
their silence. Webster, in his campaign speech at 
Valley Forge, spoke plainly and to the point. He 
was opposed to annexation. But Clay undertook 
to explain, sent off his Alabama letter, and wrote 
himself out of the Presidency. The defeat of Clay 
stunned the Whigs and elated the Democrats, who, 
carried away by their triumph, passed the joint 
resolution under which Texas entered the Union 
as a slave State. 

To Webster's plea that it was not important to 
the country that he should return to public life the 
Whigs of Massachusetts would now no longer lis- 
ten, and on March 4, 1845, he once more took his 
seat in the Senate, as the successor of Rufus Choate, 
who was a native of Essex, Massachusetts, and a 
student at Dartmouth College when Webster deliv- 
ered his great speech in the Dartmouth College 
case. We are told that Mr. Choate was so power- 
fully affected by the argument that he determined 
to study law, a profession in which, in time, he 
won a reputation as an advocate second to none. 

The influence of Webster over Choate, thus early 
acquired, was never lost; and in their later political 
careers the two men were closely allied. When 
Webster left the Senate in 1841, Choate became his 



LONGING FOR THE PRESIDENCY 289 

successor; when Choate left the Senate in 1845, 
Webster in turn succeeded him ; and in 1852 it was 
Choate who urged the nomination of Webster for 
the Presidency before the Whig National Conven- 
tion at Baltimore. 

The annexation of Texas brought war with Mex- 
ico ; the victories of Taylor and Scott, Kearny and 
Stockton, brought a chance to secure more terri- 
tory; fear that the new acquisition might be made 
slave soil called forth the Wilmot Proviso ; and the 
great struggle for the rights of man was on once 
more. 

During the summer of 1846, President Polk 
asked Congress for two million dollars "for the 
purpose of settling all our difficulties with the Mex- 
ican Republic. ' ' Well knowing that it was intended 
to use the money to obtain a land cession from 
Mexico, David Wilmot moved an amendment to 
the bill, providing that from all territory ceded by 
Mexico slavery should forever be excluded. The 
House passed the bill and proviso, but the Senate 
struck out the proviso, and the House refused to 
concur. The bill was lost ; and when Congress met 
again a new bill carrying a three-million-dollar ap- 
propriation was presented to the House, and the 
proviso was once more added. This was directly 
in accord with Webster's anti-expansion views, 
and a fortnight later he laid upon the table of the 
Senate two resolutions : the one set forth that war 
ought not to be waged with Mexico for the purpose 



290 DANIEL WEBSTER 

of acquiring new territory out of which to form 
new States to be added to the Union ; the other that 
Mexico ought to be told that the United States did 
not want her territory, and would treat for peace 
on a liberal basis. A couple of weeks later, when 
a resolution much like his was put and voted down, 
he spoke out: "It is due to the best interests of 
the country, to its safety, to its peace and harmony, 
and to the well-being of the Constitution, to de- 
clare at once, to proclaim now, that we want no 
new States, nor territory to form new States out of, 
as the end of conquest." He was not opposed to 
a change in the boundary, to such a change as 
would give us the port of San Francisco. He was 
in favor of the Wilmot Proviso, and voted for it 
when the bill with it attached came before the Sen- 
ate. Indeed, in the autumn, when speaking to a 
Whig convention at Springfield, he claimed to have 
been its discoverer. "We hear much, just now," 
he said, "of a panacea for the dangers and evils 
of slavery and slave annexation, which they call 
the Wilmot Proviso. ... I feel some little in- 
terest in this matter, sir. Did I not commit myself, 
in 1837, to the whole doctrine, fully, entirely ? And 
I must be permitted to say that I cannot quite con- 
sent that more recent discoverers should claim the 
merit and take out the patent. I deny the priority 
of their invention. Allow me to say, sir, it is not 
their thunder." 

The world of politics was now in utter confusion. 



LONGING FOR THE PEESIDENCY 291 

Both the great parties were breaking up, and from 
the fragments that fell off a host of little organi- 
zations, "movements" as they were called, were 
forming. Never before in our annals had so many 
candidates been nominated by the people. Native 
Americans, the Liberty party, the Liberty League, 
the Industrial Congress, Barnburners, Pree-soilers, 
Whigs, and Democrats had each named a candi- 
date of their own or had indorsed one of some other 
party's choosing. 

After the defeat of Clay in 1844, it did seem as 
if Webster 's hour had really come, and that he was 
the only available leader the Whig party could offer 
for the Presidency in 1848. Clay, it is true, was 
never more idolized; but his enemies were many 
and active, his views on the extension of slavery 
were opposed to the growing convictions of North- 
ern Whigs, while even his warmest friends had 
grown very tired of following him always to de- 
feat. A new man was wanted ; might not Webster 
be that man? His belief that slavery was a State 
institution and could not be meddled with by Con- 
gress made him acceptable to Southern Whigs. 
His services, his abilities, his devotion to the Con- 
stitution and the Union, were the admiration of 
Northern Whigs. His opposition to expansion, to 
the acquisition of more slave soil, might well bring 
to his support thousands of old-line Whigs who 
had been driven by the conduct of Clay into the 
ranks of the Liberty party. But the prospect, fair 



292 DANIEL WEBSTER 

as it was, proved a delusion. Webster did not 
])Ossess one of the attributes of a popular leader. 
The very greatness of his abilities raised him far 
above the mass of men, and put him out of touch 
with them. He inspired awe, but not affection. 
No mortal man ever thought of coupling his name 
with any epithet of popular endearment. Jackson 
was ' ' Old Hickory, " " Old Roman ' ' ; Harrison was 
"Old Tip"; Clay was "Harry of the West," "the 
Mill-boy of the Slashes"; and Taylor "Old Rough- 
and-Ready": but the senator from Massachusetts 
was ' ' the Hon. Daniel Webster ' ' to his dying day. 
Even the cartoonists could find no other name for 
him than "Black Dan." It was to "Rough-and- 
Ready, ' ' therefore, and not to Daniel Webster, that 
the Whig masses turned in 1848, when they were 
done with Henry Clay. 

That the hero of Palo Alto and Resaca de la 
Palma and Monterey and Buena Vista would be 
nominated by the Whigs was certain as early as 
the spring of 1847. "The probability now is," 
Webster wrote to his son in April of that year, 
"that General Taylor will come in President with 
a general rush. . . . It is the nature of man- 
kind to carry their favor toward military achieve- 
ment. No people have ever been found to resist 
that tendency." This was quite true; yet, when 
the time came and the convention met, Webster 
allowed his name to go before it, though certain 



LONGING FOE THE PRESIDENCY 293 

of defeat. On the first and second ballots he was 
given twenty-two votes by Maine, New Hampshire, 
Massachusetts, and New York. Ou the third bal- 
lot he lost one from Maine, three from Massachu- 
setts, and the one from New York. On the fourth 
and last ballot another vote from Maine and two 
from New Hampshire left him, and Taylor was 
triumphantly nominated. The candidate having 
been named, member after member rose to prom- 
ise his support to the nominee, and among those 
who secured recognition from the chair was Mr. 
Allen, a Conscience Whig of Massachusetts and a 
warm supporter of Webster. "I think," said he, 
"I know something of the feelings of my State; 
I express for myself what I believe to be the sen- 
timents of that State; and I say that we cannot 
consent that this should go forth as the unani- 
mous vote of this convention, and I will give my 
reasons. ' ' " Amidst cries, ' ' says the reporter, ' ' of 
'Sit down!' 'Order!' 'Hear him!' 'Go on!' 'Sit 
down!' 'Let him go on!' we finally caught the 
words: 'The Whig party of the North are not to 
be allowed to fill with their statesmen — ['Sit 
down!' 'Order!' 'Hear him!'] Therefore we de- 
clare the Whig party of the Union this day dis- 
solved.' Cheers and hisses now rose in a deafen- 
ing shout from the excited convention. Member 
after member jumped to his feet to reply, but they 
were persuaded by their friends to refrain. 'Let 



294 DANIEL WEBSTER 

the North answer him!' 'Let Massachusetts an- 
swer him ! ' ' There is better Whiggery there than 
that ! ' were the shouts heard from all sides. ' ' 

When some semblance of order was at last re- 
stored, nominations were made for the Vice-Presi- 
dency, in the course of which Mr. Ashmun of Mas- 
sachusetts, rising to withdraw the name of Robert 
C. Winthrop, denied that Mr. Allen spoke the sense 
of Massachusetts. In a moment Henry Wilson of 
the same State was on his feet. "I, for one, will 
not be bound by the proceedings of this conven- 
tion," he said. "We have nominated a gentleman, 
sir, for President of the United States who has 
stated over and over and over again, to the whole 
nation, that he did not intend to be bound by the 
principles or the measures of any party, and that 
he will not accept the nomination of the Whig 
party, or the Democratic party, or any party in 
any portion of the country who will nominate him. 
Sir, he has said— ['Order, Mr. President, I call 
the gentleman to order.'] All I asked of this con- 
vention was the nomination of a Whig who is un- 
reservedly committed to the principles of the Whig 
party. But the convention has seen fit to nomi- 
nate a man who is anything but a Whig; and, sir, 
I will go home, and, so help me God! I will do 
all I can to defeat the election of that candidate." 

As for the rest of the Massachusetts Whigs, the 
cotton wing of the party, they accepted the nomi- 
nation and kept still. Mr. Choate called on them, 




RUF0S CHOATE. 



LONGING FOR THE PRESIDENCY 297 

" though grieved by the fall of their favorite 
leader, pierced by a thousand wounds," to rally 
about Taylor. Mr. Ashniun made a like plea, and 
shrewdly closed a letter to his constituents with 
Webster's words to a AVhig convention in Faneuil 
Hall : * * In the dark and troubled night that is upon 
us, I see no star above the horizon promising light 
to guide us but the intelligent, patriotic, united 
Whig party of the United States." 

Counsel of this sort, however, was not for the 
great Whig chief, and it was long before he could 
bring himself to follow the star. He was deeply 
disappointed. Neither Vermont nor Rhode Island 
nor Connecticut had cast one vote in his behalf; 
even Whigs from his own State had deserted him 
for Taylor : and in the first moments of displeasure 
he felt sorely tempted to stand aloof. In June he 
wrote to his son Fletcher, just after the news of 
Taylor's nomination came: "Keep entirely quiet 
till I see you. I suppose there will be an emeute, 
but it may be quite a question whether you and I 
and our particular circle of friends had not better 
stand quite aloof. That is my opinion at present, 
and until we see into things farther than we can 
at present. There will probably be enough others 
to do the work. At any rate, nothing can be gained 
by sudden action or movement, and therefore by 
no means commit me or yourself, or our especial 
and personal friends, till we meet and can consult. ' ' 

And again, a few days later: "I shall endeavor 



298 DANIEL WEBSTER 

to steer my boat with discretion, but it is evident 
that I must say something, or else it will be said 
for me by others, and I can see no way but acqui- 
escence in Taylor's nomination— not enthusiastic 
support, nor zealous approbation, but acquiescence, 
or forbearance from opposition. This is in accor- 
dance with what I said to the Whigs in Boston, viz. : 
that I should not recommend General Taylor to 
the people for President, but that if he were fairly 
nominated by a Whig convention I should not op- 
pose the nomination. I must stand here. ' ' 

From this course of conduct his son sought to 
dissuade him; but he stood firm, and answered: 
' ' I am sorry that I cannot see my way clear to fol- 
low your advice entirely. It appears to me neces- 
sary that I should express publicly either acquies- 
cence or dissatisfaction with the nomination. I 
have certainly said often that I should not recom- 
mend General Taylor ; but I have said, too, always, 
at the same time, that I should not oppose his 
election if nominated. Beyond that I propose to 
say nothing, except in favor of the general Whig 
cause. 

' ' These Northern proceedings can come to noth- 
ing useful to you or to me. The men are all low 
in their objects. The Abolitionists will adhere to 
Mr. Hale. The Barnburners will nominate Mr. 
Niles. If the [illegible] men at Worcester were to 
ask to put me on their ticket, what would it all 
come to? I could not consent to that, with so little 



LONGING FOR THE PRESIDENCY 299 

show of strength as they now put forth. On the 
other hand, suppose I acquiesce in General Tay- 
lor's nomination. He will or will not be chosen; 
if chosen (as I incline to think he will be), it may 
be for your interests not to have opposed him; as 
to mine, it is quite indifferent. I have, for myself, 
no object whatever. 

"If he is not chosen, things can stand no worse. 
Then, on the general ground, it seems to me I must 
not in consistency abandon the support of Whig 
principles. My own reputation will not allow of 
this. I cannot be silent without being reproached 
when such a case is being pressed upon the country. 

"I agree it is a difficult and doubtful question; 
but I think the safest way is to overlook the nomi- 
nation, as not being the main thing, and to con- 
tinue to. maintain the Whig cause. 

''We shall see, but I think we shall come out 
right. ' ' 

By September this uncertainty has passed away. 
His course is clear before him, and Fletcher is 
assured : "I see no way but to fall in and acquiesce. 
The run is all that way. We can do no good by 
holding out. We shall only isolate ourselves. 
Northern opposition is too small and narrow to 
rely on. 

"I must say something, somewhere, soon. My 
purpose is to enlarge the necessity of a change of 
administration, to say something of the North and 
its expectations, and, on the whole, to express a 

17 



300 DANIEL WEBSTER 

hope for Taylor. I must either do this, or go right 
into opposition." 

Webster had now reached another and the final 
turning-point in his public career. Had he been 
wise, he would have taken the turn which led him 
''right into opposition." Judged in the light of 
every speech he had made since the Missouri Com- 
promise, he was a Free-soiler, and his place was 
with that party. So far as principles were con- 
cerned, the platform of that party might have been 
made up of extracts from his own public utterances. 

For a man so minded the Whigs were not fit 
companions. But Webster remained a Whig, and, 
as he was obliged to speak out, accepted an invita- 
tion to address his friends at Marshfield in Septem- 
ber. "My purpose in this speech," he wrote a 
friend, ' ' was exactly this : first, to make out a clear 
case for all true Whigs to vote for him [Taylor] ; 
second, to place myself in a condition of entire in- 
dependence, fearing nothing, and hoping nothing 
personalty, from his failure or success; thirdly, 
and most especially, to show the preposterous con- 
duct of those Whigs who make a secession from 
their party and take service under Van Buren." 
Just why a Whig who believed in the exclusion 
of slavery from the Territories, who was opposed 
to the formation of more slave States, should vote 
for Taylor, a slaveholder, rather than Van Buren, 
a Free-soiler, he failed to make clear. But when 
he told his neighbors that the nomination of Tay- 



LONGING FOR THE PRESIDENCY 301 

lor "stands by itself, without a precedent or justi- 
fication from anything in our previous history"; 
that it was a nomination ' ' not fit to be made ' ' ; that 
the "sagacious, wise, far-seeing doctrine of avail- 
ability lay at the root of the whole matter, ' ' he suc- 
ceeded, so far as Taylor was concerned, in placing 
himself "in a condition of entire independence." 
This he well knew, and feeling that he could have 
little influence at Washington, another fit of politi- 
cal blues seized him, and he wrote: "The general 
result of my reflections up to the present moment 
is that it will be most expedient for me to leave 
Congress at the end of the session and attend to 
my own affairs." From the Slough of Despond 
his friends raised him by insisting, after the great 
Whig triumph, that he should take his old place at 
the head of the Department of State. "A friend 
has just said to me, 'The great question in State 
Street is, Can Mr. Webster be prevailed upon to 
be Secretary of State?' My dear friend, I am old 
and poor and proud. All these things beckon me 
to retirement, to take care of myself —and, as I can- 
not act the first post, to act none." Yet he would 
not commit himself to a refusal of the place should 
it be offered, and went to Washington in Decem- 
ber, 1848, in a better state of mind. During the 
next three months his letters show a lingering hope 
that the office may be tendered, a well-founded 
doubt that it would be, and an earnest desire to be 
left "to my profession, my studies, or my ease." 



302 DANIEL WEBSTER 

To some extent this wish was granted. The invi- 
tation to join the cabinet never came. Once more 
a kind Fate preserved him for greater things. Had 
he entered the cabinet of Taylor, he would have 
been a silent spectator of the struggle for the Com- 
promise of 1850, and the most famous of all his 
speeches would never have been made. 






CHAPTER XIV 

THE SEVENTH OF MARCH 

WHILE Webster thus waited and wondered 
what Taylor would do, the South and the 
North were in bitter strife over the territory wrung 
from Mexico— the one to open it to slavery, the 
other to keep it, as Mexico had made it four-and- 
twenty years before, free. How to turn free soil 
into slave soil was a hard question to settle, and 
many plans were presented and rejected before 
a senator proposed to spread the Constitution over 
the new Territory by act of Congress. This done, 
all trouble would be over : for, under the Constitu- 
tion, slaves were property ; could, as such, be taken 
into the Territory by immigrants; and, once in, 
must be protected. With slaves in the Territory, 
the institution of slavery would quickly follow, 
and all trace of freedom be swept from the soil. 
But just here a new difficulty arose: Could the 
Constitution be spread over the Territories? Cal- 
houn declared it could be so extended; Webster 
maintained that it could not : and the two fell into 
a debate of no little interest to us at this moment. 
The question was the status, under the Constitu- 
tion, of newly acquired soil. In the opinion of 

303 



304 DANIEL WEBSTER 

Webster, such territory was the property of, not 
part of, the United States. The Constitution was 
confined to the United States, to the States united 
under it; was extended over nothing else, and 
could extend over nothing, "because a Territory 
while a Territory does not become a part, and is 
no part, of the United States." "The Constitu- 
tion," said Calhoun, "interprets itself. It pro- 
nounces itself to be the supreme law of the land." 
"What land?" said Webster. "The land," was 
Calhoun's reply. "The Territories of the United 
States are a part of the land. It is the supreme 
law, not within the limits of the States of this 
Union merely, but wherever our flag waves, wher- 
ever our authority goes, the Constitution in part 
goes; not all its provisions certainly, but all its 
suitable provisions." 

"The 'land,' I take it," said Webster, "means 
the land over which the Constitution is established, 
or, in other words, it means the States united under 
the Constitution. The Constitution no more says 
that the Constitution shall be the supreme law of 
the land than it says that the laws of Congress 
shall be the supreme law of the land. It declares 
that the Constitution and the laws of Congress 
passed under it shall be the supreme law of the 
land. . . . According to the gentleman's rea- 
soning, the Constitution extends over the Terri- 
tories as supreme law, and no legislation on the 
subject is necessary. This would be tantamount 



THE SEVENTH OF MARCH 305 

to saying that the moment territory is attached to 
the United States, all the laws of the United States, 
as well as the Constitution of the United States, 
become the governing rule of men's conduct and 
of the rights of property, because they are declared 
to be the law of the land, the laws of Congress 
being the supreme law of the land as well as the 
Constitution of the United States. The precise 
question is, Whether a Territory, while it remains 
on a territorial state, is a part of the United States ? 
I maintain that it is not." 

In the end these views prevailed. The attempt 
to extend the Constitution failed; no government 
was provided for California or New Mexico, and 
the question went over to the next Congress. At 
this the South, firmly united on the question of 
slavery in the new Territories, grew alarmed and 
angry. The old spirit of disunion again arose, 
threats of secession were heard once more, and a 
call went out for a State-Rights convention, to meet 
at Nashville beside the bones of Andrew Jackson. 
All the old grievances that the South had against 
the North were revived and asserted. The failure 
duly to execute the fugitive-slave law, the ' ' under- 
ground railroad," the activity of the demand for 
the abolition of slavery and the slave-trade in the 
District of Columbia, were now declared unendur- 
able. To make matters worse, a quarrel broke out 
between Texas and the federal government over 
the boundary of New Mexico, and the people of 



306 DANIEL WEBSTER 

California, taking matters into their own hands, 
made a free-State constitution, established a State 
government, and asked admission into the Union 
as a free State. 

With all these burning questions under hot de- 
bate, it may well be believed that the country 
awaited the meeting of Congress with feelings of 
no common sort. On that body most assuredly 
rested the momentous question of peace or war. 
By it was to be decided whether the house divided 
against itself should stand or fall; whether there 
should be within the limits of what was then the 
United States one people, one government, one flag, 
or two republics— one of States where black men 
were slaves, the other of States where the negro 
was free. Nor was the Congress then assembled 
less interesting than its work. Never had there 
been gathered in the two chambers so many men 
whose names later events have made familiar to 
us. In the Senate were now brought together, for 
the last time, Webster, Calhoun, and Clay, leaders 
of the old parties, and Jefferson Davis and Stephen 
A. Douglas, soon to head the wings of a hopelessly 
divided democracy. There, too, were Salmon P. 
Chase and William H. Seward, destined to become 
chiefs of a party yet unformed ; Hannibal Hamlin, 
the first Vice-President under Lincoln; Samuel 
Houston, who led the Texans on the field of San 
Jacinto, and twice served as president of that re- 
public; and Thomas Hart Benton, now about to 



THE SEVENTH OF MARCH 307 

close a term of almost thirty years of continuous 
service in the Senate. 

To this distinguished body Clay returned fully 
determined to take little part in its proceedings. 
He would support Whig measures, but would nei- 
ther aid nor oppose the administration. He would 
be a calm looker-on, rarely speaking, and even then 
merely for the purpose of pouring oil on the trou- 
bled waters. But he had not been many days in 
Washington before he was convinced that the talk 
of disunion was serious, that the Union was really 
in danger, that old associates were turning to him, 
and that he must again take his place as leader. 
During three weeks the House of Representa- 
tives wrangled and disputed over the choice of a 
Speaker, and this time was used by Clay to pre- 
pare a plan to serve as the basis of a compromise. 
By the middle of January, 1850, his work was 
ready, and one cold evening he called on Webster, 
and went over the scheme, and asked for aid. This 
was conditionally promised, and a week later Clay 
unfolded his plan in a set of resolutions, and at 
the end of another week explained his purpose in 
a great speech delivered before a deeply interested 
audience. A rumor that he would speak on a cer- 
tain day brought men and women from cities as 
far away as New York to swell the crowd that filled 
the Senate chamber, choked every entrance, and 
stood in dense masses in the halls and passages. 
Fatigue and anxiety were telling on him. He could 



308 DANIEL WEBSTER 

with difficulty climb the long flight of steps and 
make his way to his place on the floor. But the 
eager faces of the throng, the seriousness of the 
plea he was about to make, and the shouts of ap- 
plause that rose from floor and gallery when he 
stood up to speak, and were taken up with yet 
greater vigor by the crowd without, gave him new 
strength. So wild was the cheering of those be- 
yond the chamber doors, and so long did it con- 
tinue, that he could not be heard in the room, and 
the president was forced to order the hallways to 
be cleared. Again Clay spoke during two days, 
and on the second showed such signs of physical 
distress that senators repeatedly interrupted him 
with offers to adjourn. But he would not yield, 
and went on till he had finished. 

Clay having spoken, it was certain that Calhoun 
would follow, and letter after letter now came to 
Webster imploring him to raise his voice for the 
preservation of the Union, and speak as he had 
never done before. 

' ' Pardon this intrusion and the boldness implied 
in this address," wrote an earnest antislavery 
leader. "I deprecate the appearance of presum- 
ing to give counsel to you, whom I regard with sin- 
cere admiration. But I must bear the folly of this 
presumption, for I cannot but obey the impulse 
that I have long felt to express to you, sir, my deep 
conviction that if Daniel Webster would only throw 
that great nature which heaven has given him into 



THE SEVENTH OF MARCH 309 

the great cause of the world, the cause of human 
freedom, his fellow-citizens, his fellow-men, would 
behold such a demonstration of personal power as 
is seldom given to the world to witness. . . . 
You once said of a professional friend, that 'when 
his case was stated, it was argued.' Of no man 
can this be said with more entire truth than of you. 
If, taking liberty for your light, you cast your 
broad glance over the history and state of the coun- 
try—if, seeing, as many think you could not fail 
to see, how slavery has interfered, and is interfer- 
ing, not with the property, but with the rights, 
with the inmost hearts of freemen, making them 
its tools and supporters, you were then to tell the 
country, in that grand and simple way in which 
no man resembles you, what you see, stating the 
great case so that it would be argued once for all 
and forever, you would not only render the whole 
country, North and South, the greatest possible 
service, but you would be conscious of a compen- 
sation in your own being which even your great 
power could not begin to compute." 

As time passed and Webster made no sign of an 
intent to speak, the appeals grew more urgent. 

"Do it, Mr. Webster," said an unknown admirer, 
' ' as you can do it, like a bold and gifted statesman 
and patriot; reconcile the North and South, and 
preserve the Union. Blessings will attend you if 
you succeed, and your name will be embalmed in 
the hearts of your countrymen. 



310 DANIEL WEBSTER 

''You will be greater than he whom we call the 
Father of his Country. He achieved its indepen- 
dency through the valor of our countrymen and 
the aid of France. I venerate Washington! But 
now the aspect is changed. He secured the liberty 
of the colonies. Whoever preserves the Union 
secures the liberty of the world. 

" Allow me in times like these to address you 
in a familiar style. Offer, Mr. Webster, a liberal 
compromise to the South, and, my word for it, the 
North will sustain you. 

"Pardon the freedom I use in addressing you. 
I am an humble practitioner of medicine— a demo- 
crat—but I go for the 'Constitution as it is, and 
the Union as it is.' " 

' ' Sir, ' ' wrote another, ' ' if you make a speech on 
the Compromise Bill that will settle the contro- 
versy between the North and South, please send 
me one of those speeches. ' ' 

"I pray you," said a third, "to pardon my in- 
truding on you for a moment at a time when your 
whole mind is so much engrossed by the impor- 
tant events which call for all your thoughts and 
powers. Let me, however, tell you in a few words 
that the hope of this community never before so 
hung on the wisdom, eloquence, and power of one 
man as it does at this moment on yours. Your 
speech on 'Foot's resolution' was a turning-point 
in your own life. Your speech this week may be 
the turning-point in the life of this nation. God 



THE SEVENTH OF MARCH 311 

knows I mean no empty flattery when I say that 
I believe you, and you only, adequate to 'set right' 
the mind of the whole country, North and South, 
on the great question which so agitates it. The 
same intellect, the same wisdom, the same power 
of demonstration and force of thought and lan- 
guage which turned back the Niagara torrent of 
public sentiment and opinion in the former case 
can now show to the South itself where right and 
reason lie. The ' equilibrium ' plan, by which sla- 
very is to repress and keep back the institutions of 
freedom, is a confession of the weakness of slavery. 
It shows what must be its own destiny in case of 
disunion and if left to itself. Why is it that the 
slave States need new guards? Simply because 
free institutions are outstripping them. In this 
age, can it be dreamed of that freedom shall be 
kept back because slavery cannot go forward? I 
cannot now name one mortal man in the whole 
circle of my acquaintance who would now, or who 
ever heretofore would, meddle with slavery in the 
slave States. Why should the slave States meddle 
with my rights by insisting on an extension of the 
inequality of representation by which one man own- 
ing five slaves has as much power as three North- 
ern farmers, lawyers, mechanics, or merchants? 
This is the point which galls me. I am sadly defi- 
cient in philanthropy, and don't know that I should 
object to own slaves if I lived in a slave State, but 
it is this political preponderance which gives to 



312 DANIEL WEBSTEB 

one man's property so much power over me that 
I had rather fight than submit to any further in- 
crease of it. How would it do to suggest the idea 
that if they wish to carry slaves with them into 
new States and Territories, such slaves shall not 
form a basis of representation? 

"I was struck this morning with a remark of 
young Mr. Rives, that no man's position in the 
land was equal to yours for so displaying and 
putting the whole case as to satisfy even the rea- 
sonable and reasoning portion of the Northern peo- 
ple as to what is the enlarged and right view of 
the whole question— because your position has al- 
ways been strictly national, while Mr. Calhoun's 
has been strictly sectional. He added that he looked 
for the greatest argument now that this country 
had ever produced. I need not repeat to you the 
ardent expressions which he used as to your abil- 
ity to give it." 

Appeals of this sort were quite unnecessary, for 
Webster was cautiously and deliberately deciding 
what was the wisest course to take. In a letter 
written as late as the middle of February he said : 
' ' There will be no disunion, no disruption. Things 
will cool off. California will come in. New Mex- 
ico will be postponed. No bones will be broken, 
and in a month all this will be more apparent." 
In another letter, written at the same time, he 
declares : "I do not partake in any degree in those 
apprehensions which you say some of our friends 



THE SEVENTH OF MARCH 313 

entertain of the dissolution of the Union or the 
breaking np of the government. There is no dan- 
ger, be assured, and so assure our friends. I have, 
thus far, upon a good deal of reflection, thought it 
advisable for me to hold my peace. If a moment 
should come when it will be advisable that any 
temperate, national, and practical speech which I 
can make would be useful, I shall do the best I 
can. Let the North keep cool." Another week's 
reflection convinced him that a national speech 
must be made, and on the 22d of February he 
wrote the same friend: "As time goes on I will 
keep you advised by telegraph, as well as I can, 
on what day I shall speak. As to what I shall say 
you can guess nearly as well as I can. I mean to 
make a Union speech, and discharge a clear con- 
science." His biographer assures us that "there 
was but little written preparation for it, ' ' and that 
"all that remains of such preparation is on two 
small scraps of paper. ' ' Yet there are among his 
papers seventeen sheets of notes, many of which 
are written on both sides of the paper. 

On the 4th of March, while Webster was still 
at work on his speech, Calhoun, then fast sinking 
into his grave, attended the Senate. He was far 
too feeble to bear the fatigue of speaking, so his 
argument was read, in the midst of profound si- 
lence, by Senator Mason of Virginia. The second 
of the great triumvirate having now been heard, 
it soon became noised abroad that Webster would 



314 DANIEL WEBSTER 

reply on March 7; and on that day, accordingly, 
the floors, galleries, and antechambers of the Sen- 
ate were so densely packed that it was with diffi- 
culty that the members reached their seats. Mr. 
Walker of Wisconsin had the floor to finish a speech 
begun the day before ; but when he had risen and 
looked about him, he said: "Mr. President, this 
vast audience has not come together to hear me, 
and there is but one man, in my opinion, who can 
assemble such an audience. They expect to hear 
him, and I feel it my duty, therefore, as it is my 
pleasure, to give the floor to the senator from Mas- 
sachusetts. ' ' 

Webster then rose, and after thanking the sen- 
ator from Wisconsin and Mr. Seward, the senator 
from New York, for their courtesy in yielding the 
floor, began that speech which he named ' ' The Con- 
stitution and the Union," but which his country- 
men have ever since called by the day of the month 
on which it was delivered. 

The scene now presented in the Senate is thus 
described by one of the newspaper letter-writers of 
the day : ' ' After a long experience, and having en- 
joyed the good fortune to be present on many of 
those occasions which form epochs in public af- 
fairs, I have never before witnessed one on which 
there was deeper feeling enlisted or more universal 
anxiety to catch the most distant echo of the speak- 
er's voice. Had the accommodations been tenfold, 
they would have failed to satisfy the demand made 



THE SEVENTH OF MARCH 315 

by every age and sex and condition. The spec- 
tacle from the thronged galleries was one of im- 
posing interest and novelty. No spot was left un- 
tenanted. All seemed to wait with anxiety when 
the great orator would appear upon the scene. 

"Mr. Webster rose in the full majesty of his 
commanding person, grave and dignified, and 
seeming to realize the greatness of the occasion 
which enlisted his services and the large expecta- 
tion which was excited. 

"It is conceded on all hands that Mr. Webster 
has made an important movement, one which will 
exercise large influence with the country and affect 
the settlement of the question in issue seriously. 
This event has occasioned much sensation, and, if 
the signs are to be trusted, a favorable reaction. 
Mr. Webster has assumed a great responsibility, 
and, whether he succeeds or fails, the courage with 
which he has come forward at least entitles him to 
the respect of the country." 

The speech did indeed make a great sensation, 
and for a while every mail brought bundles of let- 
ters of praise and requests for copies of it. Said 
one: "I was highly gratified in reading your ad- 
mirable patriotic and powerful speech in relation 
to the new Territories. It was a bold, independent, 
and dignified discharge of the high duties devolved 
upon you. The crisis required that the ablest men 
should come forth, in the majesty of their strength, 
and rebuke the fanatics and demagogues through- 

18 



316 DANIEL WEBSTER 

out the land who, by their mad and treasonable 
efforts, have basely attempted to shatter the mas- 
sive pillars of the Union. 

"The obstructionists, the impracticable, the un- 
principled, and the ignorant will evince their wrath 
at the signal defeat which they must perceive awaits 
them; but you are protected against their vindic- 
tive assaults by the holy buckler of patriotism, 
and all honest men now and for all coming time 
will be grateful for such a fearless and noble illus- 
tration of devotion to the stability, prosperity, and 
glory of the Republic." 

Said another: "I have read carefully and with 
reflection your speech of Thursday last. It ap- 
pears to me if Washington had arisen from his 
tomb and addressed the Senate on that day, he 
would have uttered the words of your speech. 

"It bears throughout the impress of one lifted 
up above the mists of passion, prejudice, and fac- 
tion, surveying with a clear vision all that is pass- 
ing below, and truthfully stating it. Divested of 
sectional feeling, forgetful of the character of a 
special representative, the words of truth and sol- 
emnness fell from the lips of one impelled by a 
sense of the general good." 

Addresses of approbation came to him from citi- 
zens of Boston, of Newburyport, and of Medford, 
from the inhabitants of towns on the Kennebec 
River in Maine, and from innumerable places all 
over the South, the West, and the Middle States, 
coupled with calls for printed copies of the speech. 



THE SEVENTH OF MARCH 317 

"The clamor for speeches South and West is 
incredible," he wrote his son. "Two hundred 
thousand will not supply the demand." To a 
friend he wrote: "Letters come in thickly and all 
one way. As soon as we can get a decent edition 
out, I mean to send a copy to the members of the 
Massachusetts legislature, and every judge, lawyer, 
justice of the peace, doctor, and clergyman in the 
commonwealth. And I would send thousands 
more, under my own frank, if I could afford it. 
But other people will send many also." 

"I have received yours," he informs his son, 
"and will send one thousand speeches by express 
to-morrow. ' ' 

By the end of March "one hundred and twenty 
thousands have gone off," and, as the demand 
showed no decline, "I suppose that by the first day 
of May two hundred thousand will have been dis- 
tributed from Washington." 

No speech ever delivered in the Senate of the 
United States produced such an effect on the coun- 
try. Compromisers, conservative men, business 
men with Southern connections, those willing to 
see the Union saved by any means, rallied to his 
support, and loaded him with unstinted praise. 
But the antislavery men, the abolitionists, the Free- 
soilers, and many Northern Whigs attacked him 
bitterly. 

"Webster," said Horace Mann, "is a fallen star! 
Lucifer descending from heaven!" "By this 
speech," said Giddings, "a blow was struck at 



318 DANIEL WEBSTER 

freedom and the constitutional rights of the free 
States which no Southern arm could have given." 
Theodore Parker was sure that "not a hundred 
prominent men in all New England acceded to the 
speech," and for the moment the estimate seemed 
to be correct. "Webster," said Sumner, "has 
placed himself in the dark list of apostates." In 
the opinion of hosts of his fellow-countrymen, he 
was indeed an apostate. He had changed his creed ; 
he had broken from his past; he had deserted the 
cause of human liberty ; he had fallen from grace. 
When Whittier named him Ichabod, and mourned 
for him in verse as one dead, he did but express 
the feeling of half New England : 

Let not the land once proud of him 

Insult him now, 
Nor brand with deeper shame his dim, 

Dishonored brow. 

But let its humbled sons, instead, 

From sea to lake, 
A long lament, as for the dead, 

In sadness make. 
. 
Then, pay the reverence of old days 

To his dead fame; 
Walk backward, with averted gaze, 

And hide the shame ! 

When news of the speech reached Boston, the 
House of Eepresentatives were debating resolu- 




DANIEL WEBSTER. 



THE SEVENTH OF MARCH 321 

tions declaring that Massachusetts could accept no 
compromise which called on her to abandon prin- 
ciples she had so firmly held and so often repeated, 
and here too Webster was condemned in vigorous 
language. He is, said one member, ' ' a recreant son 
of Massachusetts who misrepresents her in the Sen- 
ate." "Daniel Webster," said Henry Wilson, 
"will be a fortunate man if God, in his sparing 
mercy, shall preserve his life long enough for him 
to repent of this act and efface this stain on his 
name." At a great meeting held in Faneuil Hall 
to condemn the conduct of Webster, the Seventh- 
of-March speech was described as ' ' alike unworthy 
of a wise statesman and a good man. ' ' Said Theo- 
dore Parker: "I know of no deed in American his- 
tory done by a son of New England to which I can 
compare this, but the act of Benedict Arnold." 
Whig journals in New England, Whig journals all 
over the North, a large part of the religious press, 
even the Boston "Atlas," edited by an old and 
true friend of Webster, now turned against him. 

The attack by the press, the expressions of hor- 
ror that rose from New England, Webster felt 
keenly; but the absolute isolation in which he was 
left by his New England colleagues cut him to the 
quick, and in his letters he complains of this bit- 
terly: "Thus far I have not one concurring vote 
from Massachusetts. I regret this much, but I hope 
I may be able to stand, though I stand alone. At 
any rate, I shall stand till I fall. I will not sit 
down. ' ' 



322 DANIEL WEBSTER 

"I cannot well describe to you, my dear sir," 
he wrote in December, ' ' what my feelings were for 
five months, during which no one of my colleagues 
manifested the slightest concurrence in my senti- 
ments, and at the same time I knew that sincere 
men and good Whigs at home disapproved or 
doubted. It was natural enough that the speech 
of March 7th should produce a spark." 

That he should now make a public defense of 
his position was quite proper, and this he did in a 
series of letters in response to addresses from citi- 
zens of New England. To eight hundred well- 
known men of Boston, who thanked him for his 
" broad, national, and patriotic views," he said: 
"In my judgment, there is no sufficient cause for 
the continuance of the existing alienation between 
the North and the South. ... So far as the 
question of slavery or no slavery applies to the 
newly acquired Territories, there is, in my judg- 
ment, no real and practical point of importance in 
dispute. There is not, and there cannot be, slavery, 
as I firmly believe, either in California, New Mex- 
ico, or Utah. And if this be so, why continue the 
controversy on a mere abstraction?" 

In his reply to the citizens of Newburyport, he 
reviewed at great length the history of the passage 
and effect of the fugitive-slave law of 1793; 
complained that the greatest clamor and outcry 
"against the cruelty and enormity of the reclama- 
tion of slaves" came from "quarters where no 



THE SEVENTH OF MARCH 323 

such reclamation has ever been made, or, if ever 
made, where the instances are so exceedingly few 
and far between as to have escaped general know- 
ledge ' ' ; and asked, what is there, then, ' ' to justify 
the passionate appeals, the vehement and empty 
declamations, the wild and fanatical conduct of 
both men and women, which have so long dis- 
turbed and so much disgraced the commonwealth 
and the country"? When answering the citizens 
of the Kennebec River towns he made long ex- 
tracts from the writings of travelers to prove that 
his description of New Mexico was correct, that 
"this whole country is of very little value," and 
that it is "just about as probable that African sla- 
very will be introduced into New Mexico, and there 
established, as it is that it will be established on 
Mars Hill, or the side of the White Mountains." 
The purpose of Webster was not to put slavery 
in nor shut it out of the new Territories, nor make 
every man in the North a slave-catcher, nor bid 
for Southern support in the coining election. He 
sought a final and lasting settlement of a question 
which threatened the permanence of the Union 
and the Constitution, and Clay's "comprehensive 
scheme of adjustment," he believed, would effect 
this settlement. The abolition, the antislavery, the 
Free-soil parties, were to him but ' ' Northern move- 
ments" that would "come to nothing." The great 
debate of 1850 he regarded as idle talk that inter- 
rupted consideration of the tariff. Never, in his 



324 DANIEL WEBSTER 

opinion, had history made record of a case of such 
mischief arising from angry debates and disputes, 
both in the government and the country, on ques- 
tions of so very little real importance. Therein lay 
his fatal mistake. The great statesman had fallen 
behind the times, and it was perhaps well for him 
that he was now removed from the Senate to the 
Department of State. 

The Seventh-of -March speech had been followed 
on the eleventh by the famous ' ' higher law ' ' speech 
of Seward, by the appointment of a committee of 
thirteen to consider the resolutions of Clay and 
others, and by a report from the committee early 
in May. Seven things were proposed : that the ad- 
mission of a State or States formed out of Texas 
should be postponed ; that California should be ad- 
mitted as a State; that all the rest of the country 
acquired from Mexico should be made into two 
Territories, to be called New Mexico and Utah, 
and organized without the Wilmot Proviso; that 
the admission of California and the organization 
of New Mexico and Utah should be provided for 
in one bill ; that into this bill should go a provision 
to pay Texas for ceding a part of the great terri- 
tory she claimed; that there should be a new fugi- 
tive-slave law; and, finally, that the slave-trade 
should be prohibited in the District of Columbia. 

To this scheme of adjustment Taylor was 
strongly opposed; but while it was still under de- 
bate, and far from acceptance, he died, on the 9th 



THE SEVENTH OF MARCH 325 

of July, 1850. Millard Fillmore then became Presi- 
dent of the United States, and on the 22d of July 
Webster entered the new cabinet as Secretary of 
State. He was now an observer, but by no means 
a passive observer, of the passage of the compro- 
mise measures by Congress. 

Change of place, however, brought no change 
of views, and his hatred of the Free-soilers and 
abolitionists grew stronger and stronger. To him 
these men were a band of sectionalists, narrow of 
mind, wanting in patriotism, without a spark of 
national feeling, and quite ready to see the Union 
go to pieces if their own selfish ends were gained. 
Free-soilers and abolitionists were all one to him, 
and as such were attacked in language unworthy 
of the great man. In June, 1850, he declared to a 
friend : 

"I believe, my dear sir, that the political men of 
lead and consequence of both the great parties are 
sound on great constitutional questions. They are 
national, and justly appreciate great national ob- 
jects. But there are thousands in each party who 
are more concerned for State than for national 
politics, whose objects are all small and their views 
all narrow; and then, again, this abolition feeling 
has quite turned the heads of thousands. Depend 
upon it,— indeed, I dare say you think so as well as 
I,— there are many men at the North who do not 
speak out what they wish, but who really desire 
to break up the Union. And some of these are men 



326 DANIEL WEBSTER 

of influence and standing, and are or have been in 
public life. 

' ' Things begin to look better. There is evidently 
a reaction in the South ; some impression has been 
made in New York. Most of the New England 
States are now pretty right on the Union questions ; 
and Massachusetts, who has so strangely bolted 
from her sphere, may, I hope, be brought back to 
it. On the whole, I believe the worst is past. ' ' 

In SejDtember he assures another friend that he 
"had much rather see a respectable Democrat 
elected to Congress than a professed Whig tainted 
with any degree of Free-soil doctrines or aboli- 
tionism. Men who act upon some principle, though 
it be a wrong principle, have usually some con- 
sistency of conduct; and they are therefore less 
dangerous than those who are looking for nothing 
but increased power and influence, and who act 
simply on what seems expedient for their purposes 
at the moment." 

In October he writes to the President: "The 
politics of Massachusetts are in a state of utter con- 
fusion. Many Whigs are afraid to act a manly 
part, lest they should lose the State government. 
They act a most mean part in their courtship of 
abolitionism. . . . Seven imported Unitarian 
priests are now candidates for public office,— viz. : 
members of Congress, — besides a host of others 
who offer for the legislature. These are all Free- 
soil or abolition men. The postmaster at Lowell is 



THE SEVENTH OF MARCH 327 

represented to be a brawling abolitionist, preaching 
daily the duty of resistance to the fugitive-slave 
law. I shall inquire into this when I return to 
Boston." In another letter Syracuse is called 
"that laboratory of abolitionism, libel, and trea- 
son." In a speech at Capon Springs, Virginia 
(now West Virginia), after ridiculing Seward's 
"higher law," he said: "It is the code, however, 
of the fanatical and factious abolitionists of the 
North. ' ! But ' ' the secessionists of the South ' ' were 
"learned and eloquent, . . . animated and 
full of spirit, . . . high-minded and chival- 
rous. ... I am not disposed to reproach these 
gentlemen or speak of them with disrespect. ' ' The 
Constitution, despite his reply to Hayne and his 
answer to Calhoun, was now found to contain at 
least one "compact." "How absurd it is to sup- 
pose," said he to the Capon Springs audience, 
"that, when different parties enter into a compact 
for certain purposes, either can disregard any one 
provision, and expect, nevertheless, the other to 
observe the rest! ... I have not hesitated to 
say, and I repeat, that if the Northern States re- 
fuse, wilfully and deliberately, to carry into effect 
that part of the Constitution which respects the V 
restoration of fugitive slaves, and Congress pro- 
vide no remedy, the South would no longer be 
bound to observe the compact." 

In the opinion of the Free-soil and antislavery 
people, the fugitive-slave law was the most hate- 



328 DANIEL WEBSTER 

ful of all the compromise measures. In the opin- 
ion of Webster, it was not only wise, but absolutely 
necessary. Indeed, during the early months of 
1850 he framed a bill of his own, had it in his desk 
ready for introduction when he stood up to make 
the Seventh-of -March speech, and did introduce it 
in June. In detail it was quite unlike the bill re- 
ported by the committee. No provision was made 
for the gathering of a posse to prevent a rescue, 
nor for the use of the army and navy, nor for the 
punishment of a marshal from whom a fugitive 
escaped. The negro claimed as a slave was to be 
heard in his own defense, and if, after the nature 
of an oath had been made plain to him, he swore 
he was not the claimant's property, he was to be 
tried before a jury, each man of which was to be 
paid fifty cents for his pains. This marked differ- 
ence, however, did not in the least affect Webster 's 
eagerness to uphold the bill reported by committee 
when once it became a law. Again and again, in 
his answers to calls to speak at Union meetings, 
he bitterly denounces those who threaten to oppose 
its execution, and to the very last gave his hearty 
approval to the compromise measures. "I trust," 
he wrote in April, 1852, to one of his countless 
admirers, "there is not a man in the country who 
doubts my approbation of those measures which 
are usually called 'compromise measures,' or my 
fixed determination to uphold them steadily and 
firmly. Nothing but a deep sense of duty led me 



THE SEVENTH OF MARCH 329 

to take the part which I did take in bringing about 
their adoption by Congress, and that same sense 
of duty remains with unabated force. I am of 
opinion that those measures, one and all, were 
necessary and expedient, and ought to be adhered 
to by all friends of the Constitution and all lovers 
of their country. That one among them which 
appears to have given the greatest dissatisfaction— 
I mean the fugitive-slave law— I hold to be a law 
entirely constitutional, highly proper, and abso- 
lutely essential to the peace of the country. Such 
a law is demanded by the plain written words of 
the Constitution, and how any man can wish to 
abrogate or destroy it, and at the same time say 
that he is a supporter of the Constitution, and 
willing to adhere to those provisions in it which 
are clear and positive injunctions and restraints, 
passes my power of comprehension. My belief is 
that when the passions of men subside, and reason 
and true patriotism are allowed to have their proper 
sway, the public mind, North and South, will come 
to a proper state upon these questions. I do not 
believe that further agitation can make any con- 
siderable progress at the North. The great mass 
of the people, I am sure, are sound, and have no 
wish to interfere with such things as are by the 
Constitution placed under the exclusive control of 
the separate States. I have noticed, indeed, not 
without regret, certain proceedings to which you 
have alluded ; and in regard to these I have to say 



330 DANIEL WEBSTER 

that gentlemen may not think it necessary or 
proper that they should be called upon to affirm, 
by resolution, that which is already the existing 
law of the land. That any positive movement to 
repeal or alter any or all the compromise measures 
would meet with any general encouragement or 
support I do not at all believe. But, however, that 
may be, my own sentiments remain, and are likely 
to remain, quite unchanged. I am in favor of up- 
holding the Constitution in the general and all its 
particulars. I am in favor of respecting its au- 
thority and obeying its injunctions, and to the end 
of my life shall do all in my power to fulfil honestly 
and faithfully all its provisions. I look upon the 
compromise measures as a just, proper, fair, and 
final adjustment of the questions to which they 
relate, and no re-agitation of those questions, no 
new opening of them, no effort to create dissatis- 
faction with them, will ever receive from me the 
least countenance or support, concurrence or ap- 
proval, at any time or under any circumstances." 
The Seventh-of -March speech, the elaborate and 
repeated defenses of the compromise measures, the 
avowed sympathy with Southern views, the ear- 
nest support of the fugitive-slave law, now led the 
Eastern Whigs to see in Webster an available can- 
didate for the Presidency. The failing health of 
Clay and his many defeats put his nomination out 
of the question. But to the voting masses the name 
of Webster made no appeal. They were steadily 



THE SEVENTH OF MARCH 331 

turning toward another military chieftain. They 
had nominated the hero of Tippecanoe, and had 
won ; they had nominated the hero of Buena Vista, 
and had won. Why not nominate the hero of 
Cerro Gordo, of Churubusco, of Chapultepec, and 
win again? As between "Old Fuss-and-Feathers" 
and the "Defender of the Constitution," the peo- 
ple found it easy to choose. Nevertheless, the 
friends of Webster thought best to make the at- 
tempt to effect a union of Whig sentiment in his 
favor, and two appeals were soon before the pub- 
lic. One was the work of Mr. Everett, the other 
came from the pen of William M. Evarts, and 
both fell flat. Even his friends saw this, and when 
the Whig convention was about to meet at Balti- 
more, Mr. Choate, who was to present the name 
of Webster, went to Washington to warn him of 
the hopelessness of the attempt. But he found the 
great man so sure of victory that he had not the 
heart to tell him, and went on to Baltimore. There, 
on the first ballot, the vote stood : Fillmore, 133 ; 
Scott, 131 ; Webster, 29 ; necessary to a choice, 147. 
That he was beaten was plain ; but it was clear that 
his friends might say whether Scott or Fillmore 
should be the candidate. They chose to fight to 
the end, and fifty-three ballots were taken before 
Scott received 159 and was declared the nominee. 

In public Webster bore his defeat like a man; 
but his letters show how keenly he felt the disap- 
pointment. To his son he wrote: 



332 DANIEL WEBSTER 

"I confess I grow inclined to cross the seas. I 
meet here so many causes of vexation and humili- 
ation, growing out of the events connected with the 
convention, that I am pretty much decided and de- 
termined to leave the department early in August, 
and either go abroad or go into obscurity." 

But the sting of defeat was sharpest when calls 
without number came to him to give aid to the 
party candidate. Most of them he would not an- 
swer; but to one he replied: 

Marshfield, October 12, 1852. 

Gentlemen: I received only yesterday your commu- 
nication of the 24th of September; and, among a great 
number of similar letters, it is the only one I answer. 
. . . If I were to do what you suggest, it would grat- 
ify not only you and your friends, but that great body 
of implacable enemies who have prevented me from being 
elected President of the United States. You all know 
this, and now how can I be called upon to perform any 
act of humiliation for their gratification, or the promo- 
tion of their purposes'? 

But, gentlemen, I do not act from personal feeling. 
It is with me a matter of principle and character, and I 
have now to state to you that no earthly consideration 
could induce me to say anything or do anything from 
which it might be inferred, directly or indirectly, that I 
concur in the Baltimore nomination, or that I should give 
it, in any way, the sanction of my approbation. If I were 
to do such act, I should feel my cheeks already scorched 
with shame by the reproaches of posterity. 

It was long the popular belief that disappointed 
ambition, chagrin over the loss of the Presidential 



THE SEVENTH OF MARCH 333 

nomination, was the cause of Webster 's death ; but 
that such was the case may well be doubted. He 
was now an old man, far on in his seventy-first 
year. His health had long been failing ; his strong 
efforts in behalf of the compromise measures had 
impaired it still further ; and his end was inevitably 
near. That his great disappointment hastened the 
end is quite likely, for from the June day when 
the Baltimore convention adjourned he broke rap- 
idly, and in the early morning of October 24, 1852, 
he died at Marshfield. Clay had preceded him by 
four months. 



19 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Aberdeen, Lord, succeeds Palmerston, 

272 
Abolition, 247 ; right of petition for, 250 
Abolitionists, 241, 242 ; petitions of, 245, 

246 
Adams, John, oration on, 142-145 
Adams, John Q., Webster on election of, 
123-124, 125; the "coalition," 126- 
129 ; elected President, 130 ; the White 
House, 137 
'Address to the People of South Caro- 
lina," 194-195 
Allegheny County, sends Webster dele- 
gates, 235 
Alton, visited by Webster, 239 
Andover, Mass., Webster speaks at, 284 
Annexation of Louisiana, 243 ; of Flor- 
ida, 244 ; of Texas, 244 
"Anthology, The Monthly," 47 
Anti-Masons, question Webster, 235 
Antislavery, 241, 242, 243; growth of, 
249; Webster's attitude toward, in 
1839, 250 
Antislavery Society, the American, 241 
"Appeal to the Old Whigs," — pamph- 
let written by Webster, 44 
Ashburton, Lord, on the Caroline af- 
fair, 272 ; given no authority on sub- 
ject of impressment, 273 

Bangor, Webster speaks at, 231 

Bank of the United States, Jackson's 
veto of the bill to renew its charter, 
226; removal of deposits, 227; peti- 
tions for and against the removal of 
deposits, 228; power to create a, 235; 
"Fiscal" charter vetoed by Tyler, 256, 
259, 260 

Bankrupt bill, 261 

"Bargain and Corruption" charge 
against Clay, 126-130 

Benton, T. H., on Foot's Resolution, 
158-160; cartoon of, 231; on Calhoun, 
241 

Berrien, John M. , attacks Webster, 281 

Berwyn, supports Webster, 235 

Birney, James G., 242 

"Bloody Bill," 203 

Boscawen, Webster practises law at, 
43-44 

Boston, Webster speaks at, in 1835, 232 ; 
Whig convention at, 235 ; Garrison 
mobbed in, 242 ; friends in, tender 
Webster a dinner, 276 ; Webster 
speaks in, 27G 

Botts, Mr., "extraordinary" letter of, 
259, 260 



Brentwood, Webster at the convention, 
63, 64 ; writes the address, 65-66 

Buckminster, Joseph S., one of Web- 
ster's teachers, 15-16 

Buffalo, visited by Webster, 240 

Buffalo Creek, 264 

Bunker Hill oration, 132-136 ; speech at 
Whig meeting, 251 

Calhoun, John C, Webster on, 122; de- 
feats tariff bill (1827), 147; writes 
"South Carolina Exposition, " 156 ; ad- 
dress to the people of South Carolina, 
194-195; letter to Gov. Hamilton, 195; 
Webster intends to answer it, 195- 
196 ; elected to the Senate, 203 ; reso- 
lutions on the Constitution, 204 ; de- 
bate with Webster, 210 ; on the basis 
of Southern Union, 241; Northern 
views of his objects, 242; presents a 
bill against antislavery literature, 
243 ; resolutions of, on slavery in Dis- 
trict of Columbia, 246; Webster's 
charges against, 248-249; resolution 
of, 250; extending the Constitution, 
303-305 

California, plan to buy, 282 

Canada, rebellion in, 264 ; intended in- 
vasion of, 269 

Caroline affair, 263-270, 272, 273 

Cartoons, 230 

Cass, Lewis, letter to Webster, 267 

Caucus of 1824, opposed by Webster, 114 

Charleston, S. C, 242 

Charlestown, Mass., Webster accused of 
burning the convent at, 252 

Chester County, sends Webster dele- 
gates, 235 

Chicago, visited by Webster, 240 

Children of Webster, 48 

Choate, Rufus, wishes to resign, 284; 
expiration of term, 285 ; succeeded by 
Webster, 288; Webster's influence 
over,' 288 ; nominates Webster at Bal- 
timore, 289 ; at Whig convention, 331 

Cincinnati, visited by Webster, 239; 
mobs in, 242 

Clay, Henry, on the tariff, 118; an- 
swered by Webster, 118; attack on, by 
Kremer, 126, 129-130; resolution to 
censure Jackson, 228 ; cartoon of, 230 ; 
supports Calhoun, 246, 247; Webster's 
charge against, 247, 248 ; resolution of, 
250; offered the Department of State, 
255 ; presented by a Massachusetts 
convention as a presidential candi- 
date, 276; nominated by the Whig 



337 



338 



INDEX 



convention at Baltimore, 287; in- 
dorsed by Webster, 287 ; writes Ala- 
bama letter, 288; return to the Sen- 
ate, 307 ; seeks to effect a compro- 
mise, 307-308; the compromise, 324; 
death, 333 
Cleveland, Ohio, headquarters of "Hun- 
ters' Lodges," 269 
" Coalition," the "unholy," 126, 129-130 

Columbia River, as the Oregon boun- 
dary, 282 

Columbus, reception to Webster, 222 

Comet case, 271 

Compact, the Constitution not a, 207- 
216 

Compromise of 1833, 216-217 

Compromise of 1850, 307; appeals to 
Webster, 308-312; Webster's 7th-of- 
March speech, 313-316; effect of the 
speech, 316-321 ; defense of, 321-323 ; 
details of, 324 

Concord, oration at, 56 

Congress, — House of Representatives, 
Webster becomes a member, 67-68; 
work in, 71-89; loses his seat, 90; 
reelected from Massachusetts, 99; 
speech in behalf of Greeks, 100-108 ; 
on the tariff, 118 ; the election of 1825, 
122-132 ; the Panama mission, 138-140 ; 
diminution of the powers of, 232 ; no 
power over slavery in the States, 
245, 254; petitions to, 245, 246; juris- 
diction in District of Columbia, 246, 
247, 250 ; special session of, 256 ; 
passes Whig reform measures, 256 ; 
members consult Webster, 256 

"Considerations on the Embargo," — 
pamphlet by Webster, 62 

Constitution, the, — who made it, 178- 
180, 191-194, 203-216; not a compact 
between the States, 207-216 ; Webster 
speaks upon, 231 ; Webster " the de- 
fender of," 232; Webster discusses 
dangerous changes in, 232-235; general 
government limited by, 237, 238; ex- 
hortation to support, 239 ; on annexa- 
tion, 243 ; on slavery, 244 ; on the 
power of Congress in the District of 
Columbia, 247 ; Clay and Calhoun at- 
tempt to make a new one, 247, 248; 
" The Constitution and the Union " 
speech, 314 

Convention, at Brentwood, 63-66; 
speech before, 71-72 ; Massachusetts 
Constitutional, 96-97 ; Whig, of 1848, 
292-297; of 1852, 331 

Cooper, Dr. Thomas, on the value of the 
Union, 164 

Court, Massachusetts General, Webster 
a member, 97-98 

Court, Supreme, Webster's practice in, 
236 

Creole case, 271 

Crittenden, Attorney-General, 266 

Dartmouth College, Webster's life at, 
17 ; Choate, as student at, affected by 
Webster's speech on, 288 

Debate, the imaginary debate in the 
Adams and Jefferson oration, 143- 
144; Webster-Hayne, 158-181 



Democrats, pleased with Webster's res- 
ignation, 282; nominate Polk and 
demand annexation of Texas, 287, 
288 ; elect Polk, 288 ; pass the joint 
resolution admitting Texas, 288 

District of Columbia, abolition of slav- 
ery in, 245-246, 250; banking system 
of, 256 

"Doctrine, The South Carolina," 177- 
178 

Duane, Wm. J., refuses to remove de- 
posits, 227 

Durfee, Amos, 264 

East, the, Webster's defense of, 165- 

166 
Eastman, Abigail, mother of Webster, 4 
Election of 1824, Webster on, 113-115, 

122-124, 125-132 
Embargo, the, 58-62 
Encomium case, 271 
Enterprise case, 271 
Essex, Mass., the home of Rufus Choate, 

288 
Everett, Edward, 100-102; minister to 

England, 272 ; plan to send on Chinese 

mission, 282 
Exeter Academy, Webster enters, 15-16 
Expansion, Webster opposed to, 244, 

245 
"Exposition," the South Carolina, of 

1828. 156 
Extradition, provision for, secured by 

Webster, 274, 275; like provision in 

Jay's treaty, 275 

Faneuil Hall, reception to Webster, 
151-155; speech at, 190-191, 202-203, 
276 

Farm, Webster buys, in the West, 236 

Fillmore, Millard, becomes President 
and appoints Webster Secretary of 
State, 325 

Finances, income reduced by duties in 
Senate, 236 ; state of, in 1843, 284 

"Fiscal Corporation" bill, 261 

Fletcher, Grace, first wife of Webster, 
47; children of, 48; death, 146 

Florida, 244 

Foot's resolution, Webster-Hayne de- 
bate on, 158-181 

"Force Act," 203 

Forsyth, John, denounces Webster, 229 

Fort Schlosser, 264 

Fox, British minister, 265, 267 

France, 243; treats with England con- 
cerning slave-trade, 271 

Free-soilism, 245 

Friend of domestic manufacturers, 148 

Fryeburg, Webster teaches in academy 
at, 25-26 ; oration at, 55 

Garrison, Wm. L., 241, 242 

Georgia, offers $5000 for Garrison, 241 

Giddings, Joshua, on the 7th-of-March 
speech, 317-318 

Gore, Christopher, Webster enters office 
of, 39, 41-42 

Great Britain, boundary dispute, Mc- 
Leod and Caroline affair, 263-270 ; at- 
tempts to stop slave-trade, 270 



INDEX 



339 



Greeks, Webster's speech on their 
cause, 100-108 

Hallowell, supports Webster, 235 

Hamilton, Governor of South Carolina, 
Calhoun's letter to, 195; Webster pro- 
poses to answer it, 195-196 

Hanover, N. H, Webster's Fourth-of- 
July oration at, 18, 21-22 

"Hard to Coax " speech, 276, 279, 280 

Harrisburg, Tariff Convention, 148 

Harrison, William Henry, nominated 
by the Whigs, 235; visited by Web- 
ster, 239; nominated by Whigs in 
1839, 250; campaign for, 251-254; 
tenders the Department of State to 
Clay and Webster, 255 ; inaugural ad- 
dress, 255, 256 ; death of, 256 

Hayne, R. Y., on the tariff, 149, 151; 
debate with Webster, 158-181 

Hopkinson, Joseph, on Webster's 
speech on the Greeks, 106 

House of Representatives passes "gag " 
resolutions, 243, 246 

"Hunters' Lodges," 268, 269 

"lehabod," — Whittier's poem, 318 

Impressment, 273, 274 

"Intelligencer, The," 280, 281, an- 
nounces Webster's resignation, 282 

Internal Improvements, Webster com- 
ments on the President's veto of, 232, 
235 

Jackson, Andrew, to the nullifiers, 
201-202; Webster on, 202-203; asks 
for a "Force Act," 203; on Web- 
ster's reply to Calhoun, 221 ; re- 
election in 1832, 226 ; opposition to 
the Bank of the United States, 226; 
causes the removal of the deposits, 
227; censured by the Senate, 227; 
condemned for removing deposits and 
refusing the "paper read in cabi- 
net," 227, 228; protests the vote of 
censure, 229 ; cartoon of, 230 ; suc- 
ceeded ^by Van Buren, 236 ; message 
on antislavery mail, 242 
Jay, John, treaty with England, 275 
Jefferson, Thomas, Webster's oration 
on the life of, 142-145 

Kent, Chancellor, Webster's letter to, on 
Calhoun's address, 195-196, 237 

Kremer, George, charges Clay and 
Adams with corruption, 126, 129-130 

Lands, the public, — Foot's resolution, 
158; Benton on, 158-160; Hayne on, 
160-161 ; Webster on, 161-163 

Letters, to the Whig convention, 235, 
236 ; announcing wish to resign, 236, 
237; on growth of antislavery, 249, 
250 ; on the general slavery question, 
250; to Mrs. Webster, while cam- 
paigning, 252; to members of Con- 
gress, on the policy of the Whigs, 
259-261 ; asking whether he ought to 
resign, 261; explaining reasons for 
remaining, 262 ; attacking cabinet 
members who had resigned, 262; to 



Seward, concerning McLeod, 266; to 
Fox, concerning McLeod, 267; to 
Ashburton, concerning the Caroline 
affair, 273 ; to Ashburton, on impress- 
ment, 273; to his son, on "Hard to 
Coax" speech, 280, 281; to his son, 
concerning Taylor, 292, 297, 298, 299; 
to his son, concerning demand for 
copies of his 7th-of-March speech, 
317; to a friend on his treatment by 
the Whigs, 322; to citizens of New- 
buryport, 323 ; to friends, concerning 
the Compromise, 325, 326 ; to the 
President, 326, 327; to his son, 332; 
to a committee, 332 

Lewiston, 264 

Lexington, Ky., Webster visits, 239 

"Liberator," 241, 242 

"Liberty and union, now and forever, 
one and inseparable," 181 

Locofocos, pleased with Webster's res- 
ignation, 282 

Louisiana, promises to support Webster 
for Presidency, 235, 243, 244 

Louisville, Webster visits, 239 

Madison, James, Webster at President's 
levee, 69-70 ; carries resolutions of in- 
quiry to, 79-80 

Madison, Wis., visited by Webster, 239 

Maine, boundary of, 263, 272; dispute 
determined, 275 

Mann, Horace, on the 7th-of-March 
speech, 317 

Manufactures, Webster on protecting, 
86-87; tariff of 1824, 116-121; of 1828, 
147-151; of 1832, 194; of 1833, 216-217 

Marriage to Grace Fletcher, 47-48 

Marshall, John, on Webster, 81 

Marshfield, Webster's enjoyment of, 
284 

Maryland, 247 

Mason, Jeremiah, influence over Web- 
ster, 51-52 : advice on seeking English 
mission, 141 

Massachusetts, constitutional conven- 
tion, 96-97 ; Webster a senator from, 
146; legislature of, nominates Web- 
ster for President, 235; members of 
legislature meet in Boston, 235; cast 
fourteen electoral votes for Webster, 
236 ; urged by Webster to elect his suc- 
cessor, 237; Whigs of, nominate Web- 
ster, 250; Webster's defiance to the 
Whigs of, 279, 280; Whigs of, return 
Webster to Senate, 288 

Maysville, Webster visits, 239 

McLeod, Alexander, 263 ; arrest of, 264 ; 
release demanded by Great Britain, 
265 ; New York executive asked to re- 
lease, 266; attempt to prevent the 
trial, 267, 268 ; trial and acquittal, 270 

McNab, Sir Allan, seizes the Caroline, 
264 

Melbourne, Lord, 272 

Mexico, 282 

Michigan City, visited by Webster, 240 

Nassau, Creole brought into, 271 
Navy Island, seized "by Canadian refu- 
gees, 264 



340 



INDEX 



Netherlands, treats with Great Britain 

on slave-trade. 271 
New England, Webster on politics of, 

99; tariff views of, 150-151 
New Hampshire, 252; friends of Web- 
ster ask to present his name for Presi- 
dent, 284 
New York, promises to support Webster 
for Presidency, 235 ; aroused by the 
Caroline affair, 263 j government of, 
inactive against "Hunters' Lodges," 
269 
New York City, dinner to AVebster and 
speech, 191-194; meeting of Webster's 
friends in, 237; consents to speak in, 
237; antislavery riots in, 242; Web- 
ster speaks at, "in the Harrison cam- 
paign, 252; Whig meeting in, defies 
Webster, 281 
Niagara, Caroline sent over the falls, 264 
Niblo's Garden, speech at, 237, 243 
North Bend, visited by Webster, 239 
Notes, for the speech on the Greeks, 109 
Nullification, the South Carolina expo- 
sition of 128, 156: Foot's resolution, 
158 ; debate with Hayne, 158-181 ; Ben- 
ton attacks the East, 158-160; Hayne 
on the East, 160-161; Webster an- 
swers Hayne, 161-166; Hayne answers 
Webster," 167-173 ; Webster answers 
Hayne, 173-181 ; reception of the re- 
ply to Hayne by the public, 182-189; 
tendered a public dinner, 190; pre- 
sented with a silver pitcher, 190; 
speech at the New York dinner, 191- 
194; the tariff of 1832, 194: Calhoun's 
address to the people of South Caro- 
lina, 194-195; Webster proposes to 
answer it, 195-196 ; speech at Worces- 
ter, 197-199 ; South Carolina nullifies 
the tariff, 200 ; Jackson's proclama- 
tion, 201 ; Webster on the procla- 
mation, 202-203; Jackson asks for a 
"Force Act," 203; Calhoun's resolu- 
tions, 204; debate on the "Bloody 
Bill," 205-206; Webster-Calhoun de- 
bate, 206-216 ; the compromise of 1833, 
216-217 

Ohio, promises to support Webster for 
Presidency, 235 

Orations, at Hanover (1800), 18, 21-22; 
at Fryeburg (1802), 55; at Salisbury 
(1805), 55; at Concord (1806), 55; at 
Portsmouth, 62-63 ; at Plymouth, 97 ; 
Bunker Hill, 132-137 ; Adams and Jef- 
ferson, 142-145 

Oregon, boundary of, 281, 282 

" Our country, our whole country, and 
nothing but our country," 136, 152 

Pahnerston, Lord, threatens war if Mc- 
Leod is not released, 265 ; claims right 
of search, 271 ; succeeded by Lord 
Aberdeen, 272 

Pamphlets, written by Webster, 44, 62 

Panama mission, 138-140 

Parker, Theodore, on 7th-of-March 
speech, 318, 321 

Parties in 1848, 291 



"Patriotic Societies," 268, 269 
Patton, John M., resolution of, 249 
Peck, Representative, letter to, 250 
Pennsylvania, State Convention of, con- 
tains Webster delegates, 235 
Penobscot County, Maine, indorses 
Webster's nomination for Presidency, 

"Pet banks," 227 

Petition, the right of, 245, 246; Web- 
ster's opinion, 250 

Philadelphia, antislavery riots in, 242 

Pitcher, silver, given to Webster, 190 

Pittsburg, reception to Webster and a 
speech at, 222-224 

Plumer, William, Webster's encounter 
with, 48-49 

Plymouth, — oration on "First settle- 
ment of New England," 97 

Polk, James K., nominated by the 
Democrats, 287 ; defeats Clay, 288 

Portland, supports Webster's nomina- 
tion for Presidency. 235 

Portsmouth, New "Hampshire, Web- 
ster's life at, 47-53 ; oration at, 62-63; 
. Webster removes from, 90 

Portugal, treaty with England concern- 
ing the slave-trade, 271 

Presidency, Webster a candidate for 
(1848), 291-292; scenes at the conven- 
tion, 292-297 ; Webster a candidate for 
(1852), 330-331 

Protection, Webster opposed to, 86-87, 
116, 117-121, 147-151 

Proviso, the Wilmot, 289; Webster on, 
290 

Public lands, bill to distribute proceeds 
of, 256 

Richmond, Va., 252, 253, 254 

"Right of search," 263; renewal of 
claim, by Great Britain, 270, 271 

Rush, Richai'd, on the Adams and Jeffer- 
son oration, 144 

Salisbury, N. H. , founded, 3^ ; Webster 
born in, 6 

Saratoga, 252, 253 

Scott, Winfield, nominated for the 
Presidency, 331 ; Webster refuses to 
support, 332 

Secretary of State, Webster accepts the 
office of, 255; revises Harrison's in- 
augural address, 255, 256; consulted 
by members of Congress, 256; re- 
mains in cabinet, 261, 262 j called upon 
to settle the boundary dispute and 
McLeod affair, 263-270"; investigates 
"Hunters' Lodges," 268,269; settles 
the Caroline affair, 272, 273 ; addresses 
a letter to Ashburton on impressment, 
273 ; secures extradition treaty, 274, 
275; settles the slave-trade question 
and the Maine boundary, 275; urged 
to resign, 276 ; reply, 276, 279, 280 ; re- 
signs office, 282; reasons for resigna- 
tion, 283 ; Fillmore appoints himj 325 

Senate of the United States, Webster 
elected a senator from Massachusetts, 
146; defends New England, 150-151; 



INDEX 



341 



votes for tariff of 1828, 151 ; Webster- 
Hayne debate. 158-181 ; Webster-Cal- 
houn debate, 203-210; war against 
Jackson, 227 ; calls for the paper read 
in cabinet, 227; censures Jackson, 
227; Jackson sends protest to, 229; 
Webster speaks on the powers and 
duties of, 230 ; Webster thinks of re- 
tiring from, 236 ; service in, not lucra- 
tive, 236; Massachusetts legislature 
urges Webster to remain in, 237 ; Web- 
ster opposes Calhoun's resolutions on 
slavery, 246, 247 ; Webster calls atten- 
tion to his speech in, 254; Webster 
considers returning to, 284 ; surprised 
by Texas treaty, 287; Webster's re- 
turn to, 288; Wilmot proviso, 289; 
debate on extending the constitution, 
303-305 ; membership in 1850, 306-307 ; 
the compromise of 1850, 307; Web- 
ster's speech, 308-312 
" Seventh-of -March " speech, 308-321; 

Webster's defense, 321-323 
Seward, Wm. H., asked to nolle prosequi 
the McLeod case, 266; denies, 267; 
prevents the discharge of McLeod, 
268 
Slavery, the question to unite the 
South, 241; attitude of the North 
toward, 242 ; a national question, 243 ; 
Webster's opinion of, 244. 245 ; in the 
District of Columbia, 246, 247; Web- 
ster's attitude toward, 247 ; Webster 
on the general question, 250 j Webster 
speaks on, in the South, 253, 254 
Slave-trade, 263; British attempt to 
stop, 270, 271 ; inter-State, 271 ; agree- 
ment with England concerning, 275 
South Carolina, resents the tariff, 156 ; 
exposition of 1828, 156; Senator 
Hayne's debate with Webster, 158- 
181 ; anti-tariff excitement, 194 ; Cal- 
houn's address to the people of, 194- 
195; letter to Gov. Hamilton, 195; 
nullifies the tariff, 200; Jackson's 
proclamation to the nullifiers, 201 
Spain, 243 ; British treaty with, 271 
Speeches, on the cause of the Greeks, 
100-108; notes for, 109-110; on Pan- 
ama mission, 138-140; on New Eng- 
land and the tariff, 150-151 ; in Fan- 
euil Hall, 151-155 ; replies to Hayne, 
161-166, 173-181; demand for copies, 
188-189 ; in Paneuil Hall, 190-191 ; at 
New York, 191-194; at Worcester, 
197-199 ; in Faneuil Hall, 202-203 ; re- 
ply to Calhoun, 210-216 ; at Pittsburg, 
222-224; attacking Jackson's financial 
policy, 228; on "a redeemable paper 
currency," 228; on "The Natural 
Hatred of the Poor to the Rich," 228; 
on examination of the powers and 
duties of the Executive and Senate, 
230; on "the two grand purposes of 
the Constitution," 231, 232; on dan- 
gerous changes going on in the Con- 
stitution, 232, 235; at Niblo's Garden, 
237, 243, 244, 245 ; during the Western 
trip, 239, 240 ; on slavery in District 
of Columbia, 247; on Calhoun's polit- 



ical conduct, 248, 249; in the Harrison 
campaign, at Saratoga, Bunker Hill, 
New York, and Richmond, 252-254; the 
"Hard to Coax," 276, 279, 280; at An- 
dover, 284 ; at Vallev Forge, 288 ; at 
Marshfield, 300 ; 7th-of March, 314- 
323; Capon Springs, 327 
Springfield, Ohio, Webster buys a farm 

near, 236 
States, admission of, 244; duties in re- 
lation to slavery, 246, 247; Congress 
without power to free slaves in, 250, 
254 
"States' Rights," Webster on, 248, 249 
Stevenson, Andrew, resigns British mis- 
sion, 272 
St. Louis, visited by Webster, 239 
Subtreasury Act, repeal of, 256 
Sumner, Charles, on the 7th-of-March 

speech, 318 
Sweden, treaty with England concern- 
ing slave-trade, 271 

Taney, Roger B., appointed Secretary 

of the Treasury, 227 
Tariff, of 1816, 115; agitation, 116; 
Webster opposed, 116; answers Clay 
(1824), 118, 119-121; of 1828, 147-151; 
of 1832, 194; compromise, 210-216; 
Calhoun on, 241 
Taylor, Zachary, nominated for the 
Presidency, 292-297;anger of Webster, 
297-300; Webster's speech at Marsh- 
field, 300-301 ; death of, 324 
"Telegraph, The," a nullification iour- 

nal, 241 
Territories, the, slavery in, 246 ; status 

of, under the Constitution, 303-305 
Texas, annexation of, 243, 244, 245, 249 ; 
independence of, 282; Tyler's desire 
to annex, 283; Clay and Van Bureu 
avoid the question, 287 ; Tyler nego- 
tiates secret treaty with, 287; Polk 
demands annexation, 288; Webster 
opposes, 288; Clay tries to explain 
his attitude concerning, 288; enters 
the Union, 288 
Thompson, Thomas W., Webster studies 

law with, 24-25 
Tippecanoe, Hero of, 251 ; clubs, 252 
Toledo, visited by Webster, 240 
Tyler, John, succeeds Harrison, 256; 
agrees to reform measures, but vetoes 
charter for a "Fiscal Bank of the 
United States," 256; Webster's de- 
fense of, 259-261; vetoes "Fiscal Cor- 
poration Bill," 261 ; read out of Whig 
party, 261 ; cabinet resigns except 
Webster, 261 ; championed by Webster, 
262 ; Massachusetts State convention 
reads him out of party, 276 ; Webster 
attacked by the press for supporting, 
281; plan as to Oregon boundary, 282; 
determination to annex Texas, 283 

Union, the, Webster on, 155, 157; Hayne 
debate, 158-181; national eulogy upon, 
231 ; nature and value of, 237, 238 

Utica, 242 ; trial of McLeod in, 270 



342 



INDEX 



Valley Forge, Webster speaks at, 288 

Van Buren, succeeds Jackson, 236 ; 
summons Congress to a special ses- 
sion, 239; tries to avoid Texas ques- 
tion, 287 ; rejected by the Democratic 
convention, 287 

Vermont, promises Webster its support 
for Presidency, 235 

Virginia, 247, 253, 254 

War, the Mexican, Webster opposed to, 

289-290 
War of 1812-15, Webster on opposition 

to, 71-72 
Washington, life at, in 1813, 69-70 
Webster, Daniel, character of his father, 
3-6; birth, 6; school-days, 6-9, 10, 12; 
goes to Exeter Academy, 15 ; anecdote 
of, 15-16; taught by Rev. S. Wood, 
16-17; enters Dartmouth College, 17; 
life at Dartmouth, 17-18; Fourth-of- 
July orator at Hanover, 18, 21-22 ; 
graduates from Dartmouth, 24 ; stud- 
ies law, 24-25; teacher in Fryeburg 
Academy, 25-26; why he studied law, 
28-29 ; early poverty, 29-30 ; choice of 
a place for the practice of law, 31-35 ; 
goes to Boston, 35-38; enters Mr. 
Gore's office, 38, 41-42 ; offered clerk- 
ship of court, 41-42 ; advice of Mr. 
Gore, 41, 42 ; of his father, 42-43 ; ad- 
mitted to the bar, 43 ; opens an office 
at Boscawen, 43-44; "Appeal to the 
Old Whigs," 44; writes for the " An- 
thology, '47 ; removes to Portsmouth, 
47 ; marriage, 48 ; children, 48 ; en- 
counter with William Plumer, 48-49 ; 
influence of Jeremiah Mason over, 
51-52 ; extent of practice, 52-53 ; ora- 
tion at Fryeburg, 55 ; at Concord, 56 ; 
"Considerations on the Embargo," 
62; oration at Portsmouth, 62-63; 
Brentwood Convention, 63-66 ; writes 
the address, 65-66 ; elected to House 
of Representatives, 66 ; life at Wash- 
ington, 69-70 ; on opposition to war 
with Great Britain, 71-72 ; resolutions 
of inquiry, 75-76 ; sent with them to 
Madison, 79-80; answer of Madison, 
81 ; on report of restrictive system, 
84-87; on protection to manufac- 
turers, 86-87; opposition to the ad- 
ministration, 87-89 ; reelected, 89 ; de- 
cides to leave Portsmouth, 90; goes 
to Boston (1816), 90; practice at Bos- 
ton, 96 ; member of the Constitutional 
Convention, 90-97; presidential elec- 
tor, 97 ; member of Massachusetts 
General Court, 97 ; elected to House 
of Representatives, 99 ; criticism of 
New England, 99; speech on the 
cause of the Greeks, 100-108 ; notes 
for, 109 ; opposed to party caucus, 
113-114; on the tariff, 116, 117-121 ; on 
the candidates, 122-124, 125; on elec- 
tion of 1825, 130-132 ; the Bunker Hill 
oration, 132-136; on the Panama mis- 
sion, 138-140; desires the English mis- 
sion, 141; oration on Adams and Jef- 
ferson, 142-145; elected senator, 140- 



death of Mrs. Webster, 146; speech 
on the tariff of 1828, 149-151 ; defends 
his vote, 151-155 ; views on the Union, 
157; debate with Hayne, 158-181 ; re- 
ception of the reply by the people, 
182-187; demand for copies, 187-189; 
tendered a public dinner in Boston, 
190; given a silver pitcher, 190; speech 
in Faneuil Hall, 190-191 ; dinner at 
New York City and speech, 191-193; 
speech before a convention at Wor- 
cester, 197-199; speech at Boston on 
Jackson's proclamation, 202-203 ; de- 
fense of the Force Act, 205-206 ; reply 
to Calhoun, 210-216; resolutions on 
the tariff, 218; effects of his reply to 
Calhoun, 221; receptions tendered him, 
221-222; at Pittsburg, 222-224; sup- 
ports resolution censuring Jackson, 
228; attacks the financial policy of 
Jackson, 228 ; returns to Washington 
to speak against the "protest," 229; 
denounced by Senator Forsyth, 229; 
speaks on the powers and duties 
of the Executive, 230; attacked by 
the cartoonists, 230-231; speaks on 
the Constitution at a dinner in 
Bangor, 231; "the defender of the 
Constitution," 232; speaks at Boston, 
232 ; considered as a candidate for the 
Presidency, 235 ; withdraws candidacy 
for President, 235, 236 ; receives four- 
teen electoral votes in Massachusetts, 
236; thinks of retiring from the Seu- 
ate, 236; finances of, 236; buys a 
Western farm, 236 ; urged not to re- 
sign seuatorship, 237; public recep- 
tion in New York, 237; speaks at 
Niblo's Garden, 237; visits the 
West, 239, 240 ; contest with Calhoun 
in Senate, 241 ; on slavery and the 
annexation of Texas, 243, 244, 245, 
249; opposed to abolitionists, 245; op- 
poses Calhoun's resolution on slavery 
in District of Columbia, 246, 247; re- 
views Calhoun's political conduct, 248, 
249 ; opinion on antislavery and the 
conciliation of the South, 249, 250 ; on 
the general question of slavery, 250 ; 
nominated for President by the Massa- 
chusetts Whigs, 250 ; enters the cam- 
paign for Harrison, 251 ; speaks at 
Saratoga, Bunker Hill, New York, and 
Richmond, 252-254; resigns senator- 
ship and becomes Secretary of State, 
255 ; advises members of Congress and 
defends Tyler, 256-261 ; remains in 
Tyler's cabinet, 261 ; champions Ty- 
ler, 262; takes up the disputes with 
England, 263 ; attempts to adjust the 
McLeod affair, 265-270; closes the 
Caroline affair, 273 ; addresses a letter 
to Ashburton on impressment, 273, 
274 ; secures extradition treaty, 274, 
275; settles slave-trade question and 
the Maine boundary, 275 ; again urged 
to leave the cabinet, 276 ; delivers 
" Hard to Coax " speech, 276, 279, 280; 
attacked by the press, 281 ; plan to 
send him to England on mission con- 



INDEX 



343 



cerning Oregon, 282; resigns office of 
Secretary of State, 282; causes, 283; 
a private citizen, 284; friends oppose 
retirement, 284; prefers Senate to 
the bar, 284 ; finances, 284 ; approves 
nomination of Clay, 287 ; forgiven by 
the Whigs, 287; opposes annexation 
of Texas, 288 ; returns to the Senate, 
288; nominated by Choate at Bal- 
timore, 289 ; anti-expansion resolu- 
tions, 289 ; on the Wilinot Proviso, 
290; candidate for the presidency 
(1848), 291-292; scenes in the nomi- 
nating convention, 292-297 ; anger at 
Taylor's nomination, 297-300; the 
Marshfield speech, 300; desires a cabi- 
net office, 301 ; extending the Consti- 
tution to the Territories, 304-305 ; the 
compromise of 1850, 307; appeals to, 
to speak, 308-312 ; effects of the speech 
315-321 ; defends his course, 321-323 ; 
death of Taylor, 325; Secretary of 
State, 325; defense of the compro- 
mise measures, 325-330 ; candidate for 
the Presidency, 331 ; refuses to sup- 
port Scott, 332 ; death, 333 

Webster, Ebenezer, settles at Salisbury, 
4 ; serves in the war for independence, 
4-5 ; father of Daniel, 6 ; becomes a 
lay judge, 11; aspirations for Daniel, 
12-13 ; anecdote af , 42-43 

Webster, Ezekiel, his letter to Daniel, 
30-31 ; persuades Daniel to come to 
Boston, 35-36 

Whigs, nominate Clay at Baltimore, 



287; Webster approves Clay at ratifi- 
cation meeting ot, 287 ; of Massachu- 
setts return Webster to Senate, 288 ; 
national convention at Baltimore, 
289; scenes at the convention, 293-297; 
admiration of, for Webster, 230 ; con- 
sider Webster as a candidate for the 
Presidency, 235 ; in Massachusetts 
convention refuse Webster's with- 
drawal of candidacy, 236 ; defeated, 
236; of Massachusetts nominate Web- 
ster, 250 ; nominate Harrison, 250 ; 
campaign of, 251-254; victory of, 
in 1840, 255; policy of, outlined by 
Webster, 259-261 ; attempt to embar- 
rass Tyler, 260, 261 ; read Tyler out 
of party, 261-276 ; urge Webster to re- 
tire from cabinet, 276; of Massachu- 
setts indorse Clay, 276 ; Webster's 
defiance, 279, 280 ; indignation of, 280, 
281 ; attacks of press, 282 ; Webster a 
delegate to a convention of, 284 ; con- 
vention of 1848, 292-297; Webster's 
criticism, 300 ; attacked by Webster, 
326; convention of 1852, 331 

Whittier, John G., on the 7th-of -March 
speech, 318 

Wilmot Proviso, 245, 289. 290 

Wilson, Henry, at the Whig convention 
in 1848, 294 

Winthrop, Robert C, 237 

Wood, Rev. Samuel, one of Webster's 
teachers, 16-17 

Worcester, Webster's speech at, 197- 
199 






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